ROE BUCK. 
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Roe buck. 
The roe buck is the smallest of the deer kind 
known in our climate, and is now almost extinct 
among us, except in some parts of the Highlands 
of Scotland. It is generally about three feet 
long, and about two feet high. The horns are 
from eight to nine inches long ; upright, round) 
and divided into only three branches. The body 
is covered with very long hair, well adapted to 
the rigour of its mountainous abode. The lower 
part of each hair is ash colour ; near the ends 
is a narrow bar of black, and the points are yel- 
low. The hairs on the face are black, tipped with 
ash colour. The ears are long, their insides of 
a pale yellow, and covered with long hair. The 
spaces bordering on the eyes and mouth are black. 
The chest, belly, and legs, and the inside of the 
thighs, are of a yellowish white ; the rump is of 
a pure white, and the tail very short. The make 
of this little animal is very elegant ; and its swift- 
ness equals its beauty. It differs from the fallow 
deer, in having round horns, and not flatted 
like theirs. It differs from the stag, in its smal- 
ler size and the proportionable paucity of its ant- 
lers ; and it differs from all of the goat kind 
as it annually sheds its horns and obtains new ones, 
yvhich none of that kind are ever seen to do. 
As the stag frequents the thickest forests, and 
the sides of the highest mountains, the roe buck, 
with humbler ambition, courts the shady thicket, 
and the rising slope. Although less in size, and 
far inferior in strength, to the stag, it is yet more 
beautiful, more active, and even more courageous. 
Its hair is always smooth, clean, and glossy ; and 
it frequents only the driest places, and of the 
purest air. Though but a very little animal, 
