Roe Deer 
1 7 5 
a day, in Foulis-Wester over thirty, and I have seen many roe there. At Rohallion, 1 in 
Perthshire, which, by the way, was for several centuries the main hunting ground for roe of 
the kings of Scotland, I have seen twenty killed in a day ; and there are several of the big 
woods on the Duke of Athole’s and the Earl of Mansfield’s estates in Perthshire where this 
number are killed in a day every year. 
No British animal has received less attention at the hands of the naturalist than the roe. 
In what are called standard works he is dismissed with a few lines, and interesting notes on 
his natural history in the columns of even a paper like the Field are few and far between. I 
therefore take up the pen with a certain amount of confidence, knowing that I am traversing 
ground that has been practically untouched. The roe has always been a great favourite with 
me, and having lived for most of my life by his haunts, I have perhaps enjoyed more oppor¬ 
tunities of closely studying the animal than most naturalists. 
There are many points about the natural history of the roe that differ considerably from 
those of the fallow and red deer, particularly so in the case of his breeding habits. In days 
gone by certainly both sportsmen and naturalists must have been singularly unobservant not 
to have known with certainty the time at which roe paired, for it was practically only 
recently that the exact period of the year was ascertained. This is only one point, however ; 
for their fighting habits, which I know take place at two seasons , and their pseudo-erotic 
tendencies are all very curious. 
Roe are commonly found in small parties of from two to six, and are never gregarious 
in the strict sense of the word, yet in places where they are unusually numerous and in big 
woods it is not uncommon to see more than this together. 
I have previously mentioned seeing six bucks all together one morning at Cawdor, and 
at Murthly I have seen twenty of both sexes in one herd, but this must be very uncommon. 
In the heavily-wooded parts of Scotland, where there is no open forest for the roe to 
Rohallion, literally the head of the roe. 
