British Deer and their Horns 
204 
“ Did a the laddies get hame a 5 richt ? ” 
“ Ay.” 
“ Are ye perfectly certain ? ” 
“ Surely. Why, what’s the matter ? ” 
“ Oh, naethin’,” with a sigh of infinite relief, “ but if ye gang to the corner o’ Gellies 
Wud, ye’ll find a roe.” 
In shooting roe with a shot-gun it is most essential to be perfectly silent in taking 
one’s place, and, when once there, to keep quite out of sight and perfectly still. Clothes 
in colouring as like the surroundings as possible are a great help ; a dark 46 Lovat ” mixture 
harmonises with anything. No. 1 and buck-shot are the best to use in one’s gun, but they 
should be tried first of all, as very few twelve-bores will shoot buck-shot evenly at 40 yards. 
I have often found it useful to carry a couple of buck-shot cartridges in an outside coat 
pocket at big cover shoots, as one may have the opportunity of slipping them into the gun if 
a roe should be seen approaching. If you are walking in line with the beaters, when, by 
the way, a buck is most often obtained, it is well to remember that roe only make their 
low headlong rush for some 1 o or 15 yards and then leap into the air, and offer the best chance 
at this distance. When thus breaking back they are not always easy to shoot, and under 
any circumstances it is snap-shooting ; if a buck too has a good head, there is generally a 
beater in the way. 
Roe will often rush so close to a beater that the latter must tumble down to get out of 
the way. One hot day at Cawdor the Bellman was beating with his coat under his arm 
when a buck rushed at him. In order to turn the beast he threw the garment at its head. 
The shot was entirely successful, as, catching on the roe’s horns, the coat was borne off in 
triumph much to the amusement of the spectators. Four days afterwards it was found, some 
distance off, in another wood. 
A few years ago a lamentable accident occurred in the big plantation at Blair-Athole 
through a roebuck breaking back. The cover is here very dense, and Willie M‘Cara, one 
of the stalkers, was going along a narrow pass when a buck dashed back. Neither could 
give the road to the other, and the roe, putting his head down, struck the stalker in the 
groin. Dr. Irvine attended him at once and stated that he had very narrowly escaped with 
his life. As it was, twelve months elapsed before JVTCara was up and about again. 
If one has the time and opportunity, most excellent sport can be had by following the 
roe with a small dog or slow-going hound. Colquhoun in The Moor and the Loch well 
describes this form of the chase, and suggests that a foxhound is best for this purpose. A 
roe when he is thus pursued never keeps very far ahead of the hound if unpressed, but 
will trot along at a short distance in front of his pursuer, making frequent stoppages to see if 
he is still being followed. He, moreover, will not go off his beat, but will work in a circle 
and return again and again to the same passes, so that the hunter can, if his knowledge of 
the ground is complete, take up a good position and shoot the buck. I should have thought 
myself that a foxhound was too fast, and have seen both a basset and a big Scotch terrier 
follow close on a roe for half a day. The wonderful nose and dogged perseverance of the 
basset were well described by old James Keay (the Murthly keeper), to whose care my 
brother had for the first time confided a hound of this description. 
