34 
MAMMALS OF LEICESTERSHIKE AND RUTLAND. 
writes from 'Withcote ; — “ Occasionally one has been seen in the neighbourhood ; 
probably escaped from some park.” 
In Kutland. — T he Earl of Grainsborough tells me that they have existed 
in his park, at Exton, since the time of Charles I. 
ROE. Capreolus caprcca (Gray). 
Of Early Pleistocene age, surviving in Britain to the present, but, according 
to Potter, extinct in the counties from about the Mediaeval Period, and, strange 
to say, none of its bones or teeth have ever been turned up in Leicestershire, 
either in the Drift or in the Historic humus. I must, therefore, take exception 
to the statement made by Mr. James Plant, F.G.S., at p. 37 ‘ Report of the 
Leicester Lit. and Phil. Soc.,’ 1874, that the remains of the Roebuck and 
Falloiv-Deer * “ ai'e abundant in these Drifts,” and I regret exceedingly having 
written (‘ Zool.,’ 1885, p. 251): — “The Museum contains two basal portions of 
skulls found at excavations in Leicester ” — an error into which I was led by IMr. 
Plant, who gave me to suppose that they had been authoritatively named. 
Having a doubt, however, as to their authenticity, I sent them to Professor 
Mb Boyd Dawkins, who pronounces them parts of skulls of Goat or Sheep. 
A further error occurs, as noted in my remarks under the heading of Goat or 
Sheep. We have, therefore, no certain knowledge that it existed in Leicester- 
shire at any period, save the statement of Potter, who, at p. 142, writes of the 
manor of Roecliflf — now written Roecliflfe : — “ It is said to have derived its name 
from the circumstance of its having been a ‘stocking’ or hunting ground for 
the Roe in the days of the Earls of Leicester.” So late as the early part of the 
sixteentli century, the Priors of Ulverscroft (then called Alwayscroft) “did hunt, 
course, and hawk throughout the waste of Charnwood unto the saulte of the 
Parks of Bradgate, Groby, and Loughborough, that is to say, Fallow-Deer, Roe^ 
Foxes, Hares, etc.” 
REINDEER. Rangifer tarandus (Linnaeus). 
Of Late Pleistocene age, surviving in Britain until about the year 1200. — 
A few limb-bones and horns found in the Belgrave and other gravels, are clearly 
not referrible to Historic times. The following remains are in the Museum : — 
Part of a fine left antler, with piece of frontlet and portions of first two tines 
attached, hind snag broken off, found on 7th April, 18GG, in Grafton Place, 
at a depth of 11 feet in the drift gravel, and presented by Mr. George Holmes. 
Tlie length of beam is about 28 inches ; circumference above first tine, G ; at 
top, where broken off, 5^ ; condition dense and stony. 
A portion of a right antler, with piece of frontlet attached, and with parts 
of first two tines (the second shewing part of palmation), hind snag broken 
* See niy remarks ante as to the age of the Fallow-Deer in Britain. 
