
for several yards through the undergrowth with lowered head, but soon make
beautiful leaps in the air with the head held aloft. They are good jumpers, and
will take a five-barred gate as neatly as any thoroughbred. One of the prettiest
sights is to see a troop of Roe go through a wire fence. They rush at the
obstruction at such a pace and so blindly that you think they must break their
necks, yet they do not check their pace. There is a scarcely perceptible turn, a
‘ ping’ of the wire, and they dash on. When wounded they resort to all the
tricks and turns known to forest animals, and it requires a careful and slow-
working dog to follow their tracks. I have known a Roebuck to spring into a
long ditch and follow it down some way before doubling on his trail, thus
throwing out three retrievers.
Roe swim very deep in the water, the whole of the animal being submerged
except the head. The Japanese Deer is the only member of the Cervida which
swims deeper; it only shows the upper part of the head and the nose above
water.
Despite its long legs, the Roe’s sureness of foot and agility is only surpassed
by the chamois; I have seen it go down and up a rocky face which few men
would care to negotiate. They run equally well up or down hill, but, like the
hare, prefer to take a line along the mountain-side from which they plunge into
the thickest cover at the earliest opportunity. The sight of the Roe is wonderfully
keen, quicker in fact than that of the stag. It also hears better, and can pick up
the scent of man equally well, although not at such long distances.
As soon as the red coat is assumed in May the bucks begin to wander about
by themselves, and about June 20 we hear the first loud barks of the challenging
male. The cry, which is loud and sharp and not unlike that of an old dog, is
repeated at intervals and is answered by the female with a plaintive bleating call.1
About the beginning of July the buck has selected his wife, which he may often
be seen chasing in circles in the summer evenings, but no actual pairing takes
place until the 25th of that month.2 The rutting season may be said to extend from
July 28 to August 10, after which date the males wander away up into the Deer
forests, where the non-breeding females often follow them. It is considered by
many good observers that the buck is true to one female for the short period of the
■ The call is something like the word ‘ pe-ip.’ It can be produced by a skilful hunter by blowing on a leaf held between
the two thumbs. The Germans make excellent artificial calls, which I have used. The male call is like the word ‘ bough ’ ;
the young give a loud * ooh ’ when frightened.
* John Ross, the Kiltarlity stalker, gives July 25 as the earliest date he has seen Roe mate. Sir Arthur Grant of Mony-
musk writes to me that he has repeatedly seen it take place on July 26 and 27. I have seen it twice— on August 3 and 8.
rut, but the fact that he will come readily to an artificial call of an amorous doe at
any time and place somewhat modifies this view. I have seen three does frequenting
a small wood where a large buck was the only one in the neighbourhood, and all
produced calves; I believe he paired with each of the three females. Monogamy
is not a characteristic habit of the ruminants, and I do not believe that the Roe
is any exception to the general rule.
On being called by the doe, the buck puts his neck straight out and gallops
at full speed to her. At this season he chases her in small circles, sometimes for
twenty minutes at a time, until the ground becomes beaten up like a circus ring.1
These small rings are found in all districts where Roe are numerous, but are
soon destroyed by growing vegetation on their disuse. At Cawdor in Nairnshire
several large ‘ rings ’ exist under the beech woods, some of which are in the form
of the figure 8; these are used by the Roe both during the rutting period and as
playing grounds at other times of the year.2 The bucks fight savagely both
before and during the rutting season. They charge at one another, but generally fight
at close quarters, and pounce upon each other in a curious way. Colonel Mac-
Inroy, who lives at Brechin, recorded8 the death of a Roebuck whose skull was
pierced by the horn of another. The head of the vanquished, which he kindly sent
for my inspection, was penetrated by the antler of the victor to a depth of i f
inches, and death must have been instantaneous; so great was the force used
that the two upper points of the striking buck’s horn had been broken off and
remained embedded in the skull. This Roe was killed on April 29; Roebucks
seem to fight as much at this season as later. John Ross of Kiltarlity, the most
intelligent observer of Roe I have met, witnessed in April an attack by two young
bucks on a third, an old buck which had a ‘ perruque’ head. He disturbed the
fight, but shortly after the youthful warriors returned and killed the older
animal. Ross sent the head to me,4 and described the body of the dead Roe as
being one mass of bruises. It is rare to see Roe fight, for the reason that once a
buck has secured a mate it does not travel far, but keeps to its own ground.
1 S t John writes: ' The Roe have a singular habit of chasing each other in regular circles round particular trees in the
wood, cutting a deep circular path in the ground. I never could make out the object of this manoeuvre, but the state of the
ground proves that the animals must have run round and round the tree for hours together’ (Sport in Moray, p. 192).
Boner explains it as follows : 'T he mother will play with her kid, bounding now towards and now away from it; and a
favourite pastime seems to be to pursue her little one, or be pursued by it, round the stem of a tree. They thus will play at
“ Bo-peep,” together, and you may find trees in the forest round the stems of which a circle is trodden in the ground from the
merry racings of the happy playfellows’ (Forest Creatures, p. 31).
3 I have seen Roe chasing one another in almost every month in the year. Both does and bucks use these ‘ rings.’
3 Field, 1894. * It is now in the collection of Sir George Macpherson Grant.