176 
British Deer and their Horns 
work out to, they are obliged more or less to stick to the woods all the year round, and only 
emerge from them at night or in the early morning to pass from one cover to another 
or graze in the open spaces. In most parts of Inverness-shire and Ross-shire many of the 
best roe grounds adjoin either deer forests or sheep grounds, and to these open and greater 
elevations many roe make an annual migration, often to the very summits of the highest 
mountains. Roe are much worried with the flies and midges in July, August, and September, 
and probably for this reason as much as any other do they make for the higher and cooler 
grounds ; here they often stay, singly or in pairs, till the first chills of autumn warn them it 
is time to return to the woods. 
It is only under the constant presence of danger that an animal puts forth all its powers 
of self-preservation, and to sum up the character of the roe from our acquaintance with it as a 
puiely wood-loving species would be entirely superficial. The way to estimate roe character 
is to study him in open ground, when we can see everything that he does, and where his 
ATTITUDES OF A ROEBUCK AT BAY 
senses are strung to a higher pitch of alertness and cunning. It is the opinion of the best 
wood-stalker that I have met, Johnny Ross of Kiltarlity, in the service of Lord Lovat, that 
the sight of an adult roebuck who has been stalked once or twice is much quicker than that of a 
stag, and in that I entirely agree with him. His hearing is equally acute and his nose quite 
as sensitive to detect the presence of man, though I doubt if roe can take the wind at such a 
very great distance as red deer will. 
Roe generally keep in their family parties till the beginning or middle of May, according 
to the season, when the troop splits up, the old doe or does going off with their last 
year’s calves, though they too soon leave their mothers, whilst the bucks travel off by them¬ 
selves, and from this season to July, when they have picked up new wives or come back to 
their old ones (who seldom shift their ground much), they often go great distances. 
Though not generally known, I am sure that some at any rate of the bucks fight 
at this season. Several observant keepers have told me so, and I have once seen them 
at it myself, and the following interesting letter from Colonel M‘Inroy appeared in the 
Field in 1894. 
