Roe Deer 199 
About the most ingenious poaching trick for catching these animals, of which Mr. 
Steel, who knows all the poacher’s dodges, furnishes the illustration, is, when food is scarce, 
to attach turnips or other food to a tree in some well-frequented spot. These are placed only 
just within reach of a roe standing on his hind legs, and immediately underneath the food 
are fixed several large cod hooks, points upwards. In this barbarous mode of capture one 
turnip is generally placed below the hooks to whet the appetites of the hungry animals. On 
straining to reach the food above, they get caught in the throat or under the jaw. This is 
something similar to the method the poachers used to adopt in the old days in Devon and 
MELANIC VARIETY (GERMAN) 
Now in the collection of the Hon. Walter Rothschild. 
Somersetshire, where deer get into the orchards and reach up for the apples. A tempting 
apple was suspended by a chain from a strong pliant bough, and the deer, swallowing the 
fruit, which of course contained large hooks, was thus caught, and played himself to death 
like a salmon. 
Roe are also caught by strong wire snares in the passes, and a clever poacher who 
adopts the shot-gun is generally accompanied by a small yapping terrier taught to take the 
game in a circle and bring it back to his master, who lies, like Alphonse, “ dans un position 
favorable.” Roe are but little frightened by a terrier, and will keep pottering along imme¬ 
diately in front for great distances without leaving their regular beats and passes. 
Eagles frequently attack roe, and the following description by Donald MacIntyre, the 
head stalker of Black Mount, is interesting, as it shows what a roebuck will do to save his 
2 c 
