(_Capreolus caprea_)
The roe-deer, or roebuck, as it is commonly called, is the smallest
European representative of the deer family, or _Cervidæ_, and belongs
to a small group confined to Europe and northern Asia. So far as
external characters are concerned, roe-deer differ from more typical
_Cervidæ_, such as the red deer and the fallow deer, by the simpler
structure of the relatively small antlers of the bucks, which rise
nearly vertically from the head, and carry only three points; the
basal, or brow, tines of the red deer being absent. As a distinctive
character, common to both sexes, may be mentioned the absence of a tail.
The summer and winter dresses of the species, as in so many of the
deer of the temperate zone, are strikingly different; the summer coat
being bright foxy red, while in winter the general colour of the fur is
olive-brown. At the latter season, at any rate, there is a conspicuous
white patch on the rump, which serves as a guide to the hinder members
of a family or party when fleeing from danger. The beautiful fawns are
marked with a comparatively small number of longitudinal rows of white
or yellowish spots and streaks upon a rufous ground; this indicating
that the roe is descended from deer of which the adults were similarly
spotted in summer. The black moustache-mark on the muzzle, and the
white tip to the chin, are other features of these elegant little deer.
The bucks attain their full development in the third year, when the
antlers, which commence as simple spikes, first acquire their third
tines. Adult bucks usually shed their antlers about Christmas, and the
new ones, which increase in size, although not in complexity till the
sixth year, are in most cases fully developed by the end of February.
The fawns, of which there may be either one, two, or three at a birth,
usually make their appearance in the world in May, at any rate in the
British Isles.
The favourite haunts of roe-deer are woods and forests on the plains,
where under-wood is abundant, from which they issue forth at evening
to graze in meadows and corn-lands. On the Continent these deer are,
however, also found in forests on the lower mountains, as well as
on the spurs of the higher ranges. As a rule, they associate for
the greater part of the year in small family parties; such parties,
according to continental writers, usually consisting of a buck with two
or three does and their fawns, although it has been stated that roe are
strictly monogamous. When put up in covert, they generally start off at
a gallop with enormous flying leaps, but their speed is not great. They
are also excellent swimmers, and can likewise climb rocks to a certain
extent. Their food comprises grass, herbs, berries, and the young
shoots of bushes and trees; ivy-leaves, where they are to be obtained,
forming a favourite article of diet.
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The range of the roebuck extends from the British Isles to Spain and
Italy in the south and to southern Scandinavia in the north, while
eastwards it stretches across Poland and the south of Russia at least
as far as the Caucasus. In the Altai and certain other parts of Siberia
it is, however, replaced by a much larger, paler-coloured species
with more thickly haired ears, commonly known as the Siberian roe
(_Capreolus pygargus_), of which a local race inhabits the Tian Shan
range. Still farther east, in Manchuria and Mongolia, we come upon a
smaller and redder species, the Manchurian roebuck (_C. manchuricus_,
or _bedfordi_), which is more like the European roe, the red coat being
exchanged for one of olive-brown or grey in winter.
In former days roebuck were doubtless distributed all over Great
Britain; but by the middle of the eighteenth century they appear to
have been killed off everywhere, except in the highlands of Scotland.
Later on, with the increase of game-preservation, they have reasserted
themselves, and spread over the lowlands of southern Scotland, as well
as parts of the north of England. In North Wales they were reintroduced
into Vaynol Park in 1874; and they have likewise been turned down in
the Blackmoor Vale of Dorsetshire, where they are now once more wild.
In height, a good roebuck will stand fully 26 inches at the shoulder;
while in weight he will turn the scale at 60 lb., if in first-rate
condition. On the Continent these deer are generally hunted by means
of beating the woods, where the guns are stationed along the tracks by
which the roe pass to their feeding-grounds. Roe-venison, which is in
best condition during winter, is generally regarded as inferior to that
of either the red or the fallow deer.