210 
British Deer and their Horns 
I cannot state positively the age attained by roe, but think it averages about twelve 
years, and, judging from bucks in confinement and known bucks in a wild state, head-decline 
seems to set in earlier than in any other species, though the bodies are in no way affected. 
Probably the rarity of good roe heads is due to this early head-decline, which takes place 
generally after the eighth year. Assuming that a roe does not reach full head-maturity till 
its fifth year, the period of fine horn-growth must therefore be very short. 
Here is a good example of horn-degeneration exemplified in the head of a buck which 
I knew for seven years at Murthly. Living on an outside beat, he was hardly ever molested, 
and was so cunning as never to endanger his life till the autumn of 1893, when Mr. Athol 
Macgregor shot him. That gentleman kindly sent me the skull, thinking it was an 
HEAD OF A VERY OLD ROEBUCK, THE HORNS HAVING DECLINED 
interesting one. This buck was in his prime when he first came to Gellies Wood, and, so 
far as I recollect, had a good head for three or four years, after which Keay (the keeper) 
said it declined until it was shot in 1893. 
Though not singular in this respect, roe will often grow their very best heads when 
their bodies are in an emaciated condition. One of the best heads I have shot was that of 
a buck I killed at Kiltarlity in 1891. On examining the body, which was nothing but skin 
and bone, I found that a charge of No. 6 shot had simply riddled the poor little beast in the 
previous autumn, and I doubt very much if it could have lived many weeks longer. The 
effects of this shock to the system were shown in the tardy completion of the new horns, for, 
though the month was July, the horns were only just fraying. Curiously enough, the horns 
themselves were extremely fine. Another buck in the Zoo Gardens, 1894, died of decline, 
and was in a state of decline during the whole of the last horn-growing period; he threw 
