Roe Deer 
x 93 
corn is ripe too, they like spending the night in the fields, and make many beds there, for 
they will lie all day in fields close to a wood, if the farmers give them the chance. They 
are also very fond of certain species of fungi, which they dig out of the ground with their 
fore-feet. I have seen large spaces all worked up where they had been in search of these 
delicacies. A roebuck that I once kept was a good Scotchman, though he had a beastly 
temper, for he liked nothing so much as oatmeal porridge. 
One never sees anything about the weights of roe in books. In Scotland roe are put 
ROEBUCKS, MURTHLY, PERTHSHIRE 
From a photograph by Geoffrey Millais, 26th October 1889. 
on the scales whole, and some years ago when I had the opportunity of handling a good 
many I used occasionally to weigh them. The average buck weighs about 40 lbs. in 
October, though, of course, many exceed this, whilst does range from 30 to even 40 lbs. 
The largest buck I have seen was one I killed at Murthly on 26th October 1889. I had 
been after him for a long time, when one day, out for a beat by myself with the three 
keepers, I had the good luck to kill him and two others at the same stand, and from the 
same troop. All the roe in that part of the ground seemed to have got together in one 
small wood near the Arch, and as they came by in a string I had just time to get in my 
three shots. It was such a piece of luck as only happens once in a lifetime. I weighed the 
