[G] In French _chevreuil_; in Greek [Greek: dorchas]; in Latin
_capreolus_, _capriolus_; in Italian _capriolo_; in Spanish _zorlito_;
in Portuguese _cobra montes_; in German _rehe_; in Swedish _radiur_; in
Danish _raa diur_.
The stag, as being the noblest inhabitant of the wood, occupies
the most secret shades of the forest, and the elevated parts of
mountains, where the spreading branches form a lofty covert; while
the roe-deer, as if an inferior species, contents himself with a more
lowly residence, and is seldom found but among the thick foliage of
young trees. But if he is less noble, strong, and elevated in stature
than the stag, he has more grace, vivacity, and courage; and when the
fawns are attacked, he will defend them even against the stag himself.
He is more gay and active, his shape is more agreeable and elegant;
his eyes are more brilliant and animated; his limbs are more supple;
his movements quicker, and with equal vigour and agility he seems to
bound without effort. His hair is always clean, smooth, and glossy;
he never rolls in the mud like the stag; he frequents the dryest and
most elevated places, where the air is the most pure; he has also
more cunning and finesse; he is more difficult to chace, and derives
a greater number of resources from his instinct. Though he has the
disadvantage of leaving a stronger scent behind him than the stag,
which excites in the dogs a greater degree of ardour, he knows better
how to avoid their pursuit by a rapid flight and repeated doublings;
for he does not, like the stag, delay the application of art till his
strength begins to fail him; but even in the first instance, when he
finds his efforts of speed are not likely to save him, he immediately
begins to retrace his former steps, and continues going backwards and
forwards till, by his various windings, he has confounded the scent
and joined the last emanations to those of his former course; having
done which, by a great bound he withdraws to one side, lies flat upon
his belly, and suffers the whole pack to pass close by him without
attempting to move.
The roe-buck differs also from the stag in his natural appetites,
inclinations, and whole habits of living. Instead of herding together,
they live in separate families; the sire, dam, and young, form a little
community, and never admit a stranger into it. All other animals of
the deer kind are inconstant in their amours, but the roe-deer never
forsake each other. As the females generally produce two fawns, one
of each sex, they are brought up together, and acquire an attachment
so strong, that they never separate, unless by some misfortune. This
attachment is something more than love, for though they are always
together, they do not feel the ardour of the rut more than fifteen days
in the year, that is, from the end of October to about the middle of
November. They are not at that time like the stag, overloaded with fat;
they have no strong smell, no fury, nothing, in short, which alters
their state; the only observable difference is, that they drive away
their fawns; the buck forcing them off to make room, as it were, for a
succeeding progeny. When the rutting season is over, however, the fawns
return to their dams, and remain with them some time, after which they
quit them entirely to form separate families of their own.
The female goes with young five months and a half, and brings forth
about the end of April or beginning of May. The hinds, as already
observed, go more than eight, which is alone sufficient to prove their
difference of species, that they can never intermix, nor produce an
intermediate race. In this respect, as well as in figure and make,
they approach the species of the goat, as much as they recede from
that of the stag; for the goat goes with young nearly the same time,
and perhaps the roe-deer ought to be regarded as a wild goat, which,
by feeding solely on trees, carries branches on his brows instead of
horns. When about to bring forth, the female separates from the male,
and conceals herself in the deepest recesses of the woods, to avoid
the wolf, who is her most dangerous enemy. At the expiration of ten or
twelve days, the fawns attain sufficient strength to follow her. When
threatened with any danger, she hides them in some deep thicket, and by
way of preserving them presents herself to be chaced. But all her care
is not sufficient to secure them from being frequently carried off by
dogs and wolves. This is indeed their most critical time, when this
species, which is not very numerous, suffers the greatest destruction,
as I have found by experience. I often reside in a part of the country
(Montbard in Burgundy) famous for roe-bucks, and where not a spring
passes without a great number being brought me, some taken alive by
men, and others killed by dogs; insomuch that, without counting those
killed by wolves, I am convinced more are destroyed in the month of May
than in all the rest of the year; and I have observed, for more than
twenty-five years, that as if there subsisted a perfect equilibrium
between the causes of destruction and renovation, their number is
nearly the same in the same districts. It is not difficult to count
them, as they are no where very numerous, and keep together in separate
families, and distinct from that of any other. In a coppice, for
example, of 100 acres in circumference, there will be found one family,
or from three to five individuals, for the females will sometimes have
but one fawn, and at others three, but either case seldom happens; in
another district more extensive, there will be seven or eight, that is
two families; and I have remarked that in each district their numbers
have been uniform, excepting in those years when the winters have
been remarkably severe; in that case the whole family is destroyed,
but by the next year it is succeeded by another; and those districts
to which they give the preference are always stocked with nearly the
same quantity of them. Notwithstanding this, it is asserted, that this
species, upon the whole, is diminishing in number; and, indeed, it is
true, that there are provinces in France where not one of them is to be
found; that though common in Scotland there are none in England; very
few in Italy, and they are more scarce in Sweden than formerly, &c. But
these effects might arise from the diminution of forests, or from the
excessive rigour of some winters, like that of 1709, by which they were
almost all destroyed in Burgundy, and a number of years elapsed before
they were renewed. Besides they are not equally fond of every country,
and even in the same country they are partial to particular spots. They
love hilly grounds, and never remain in the deep recesses of extensive
forests, but prefer the skirts of those woods which are surrounded with
cultivated fields, and open coppices, where the brambles, buck-thorn,
&c., grow in plenty.
The fawns continue with the old ones eight or nine months, and soon
after separating their horns begin to appear, simple knobs without
antlers; these they shed at the latter end of autumn, and have them
renewed during the winter; differing in this from the stag, who
sheds them in spring, and renews them in the summer. Several causes
contribute to produce these different effects. In summer, the stag
takes a great quantity of nourishment, and grows very fat; in the
rutting season he exhausts himself so much that the whole winter is
not more than sufficient to effect his recovery. At this time, so far
from there being a superabundance of nourishment, he experiences an
absolute scarcity, and of coarse his horns cannot sprout till spring,
when his nourishment is again superabundant. The roe-buck, on the
contrary, who never exhausts himself so much, has less occasion for
repair; and as he is never incumbered with fat, nor any change is made
in him during the time of the rut, being always nearly the same, so he
has, at all times, the same superfluity; so that even in winter, and
soon after the rut, he sheds and renews his horns; and it appears that
these productions, which may be termed vegetable ones, are formed of an
organic and superfluous matter, though still imperfect, and mixed with
inanimate particles; since in their growth and substance they preserve
the vegetable qualities whereas the seminal fluid, whose production
is not so early, is a matter altogether organic, divested of inanimate
particles, and assimilated to the body of the animal. When the roe-buck
has completely repaired his horns, he rubs them against the trees in
the same manner as the stag, in order to strip them of the skin with
which they are covered: and this he generally does about March, before
the trees begin to shoot; hence it is not the sap of the wood which
tinges the horns of the buck; yet they are brown in those that have
brown hair, and yellow when the animal is red, consequently the colour
of the horns arises solely, as has already been remarked, from the
nature of the animal, and the impression of the air. The second horns
of the roe-buck have generally two or three antlers on each side; the
third have three or four; the fourth, five; and they seldom have more;
and the old ones are distinguished by the thickness of their stems.
While their horns are soft they are extremely sensible of pain. Of this
I witnessed a striking proof. With a ball from a gun the young shoot of
a roe-buck's horn was taken clear off, and by which he was so stunned
that he fell down as if he were dead; the shooter, who was near, seized
him by the foot, but the animal suddenly recovering his strength and
feeling, dragged the man, though very strong and vigorous, above thirty
paces, till he dispatched him with a hanger; it was then found that
he had received no other wound than that of the hanger, and what the
ball had made in striking the horn. It is also well known that flies
are intolerable tormentors to the stag; while his horns are growing,
he withdraws to the thickest covert of the wood, where the flies least
frequent, because the irritation is insupportable when they fix upon
the tender horns. Thus there is an intimate communication between the
soft part of this living wood, and the whole nervous system of the
animal. The roe-buck, who has nothing to fear from these enemies, as
he renews his horns in the winter, does not retire in this manner, but
he walks with caution, and holds his head low for fear of striking it
against the branches. In the stag, fallow-deer, and roe-buck, there are
two bony eminences on which their horns grow; these begin to shoot at
the end of five or six months, and soon arrive at their full growth;
instead of enlarging as the animal advances in age, they diminish every
year, and are the most certain marks for distinguishing the age of all
the species. I think it is easy to account for this effect, which at
first appears so singular, but which ceases to be so when we reflect,
that the horns which grow upon this eminence must press upon it during
the whole time of their growth, which is for several months in the
year; therefore, however hard they may be they must continually lower
and contract by the compression which is reiterated every time the
roe-buck repairs his horns. This is likewise the reason that, though
the trunk continues to increase in thickness as the animal advances in
years, yet the height of the horns, and number of branches, diminish so
much, that when he arrives at a great age there remain only two large
prickets, or fantastic and ill-shaped knobs.
As the female goes only five months and a half with young, and as the
growth of the fawn is more rapid than that of the young stag, so is his
life much shorter; and I do not believe it ever extends beyond twelve
or fifteen years. I have reared several, but could never keep any above
five or six years. They are very delicate in choosing their food,
require much air, exercise, and space to range in, which is the reason
they cannot sustain the inconveniences of a domestic life, but in their
younger years; for a roe-buck to live at his ease and comfortable, he
must be supplied with a female and a park of at least an hundred acres
to range in. They may be tamed, but can never be rendered obedient
or familiar; they always retain somewhat of their wild nature, are
easily terrified, and will then run against a wall with such force as
sometimes to break their legs. However tame they may be, they are not
to be trusted, for the bucks are apt to adopt many caprices; they will
take an aversion to particular persons, and run at them with their
horns with a force sufficient to knock a man down, and having done so,
they will continue to trample on him with their feet. The roe-buck does
not cry so frequently, nor with so strong a voice as the stag. The
young ones have a short and plaintive cry, their note being _mi, mi_;
which they generally use when they are in want of food. This note is
easily imitated, and by using it the dams may be brought to the very
muzzle of the hunter's gun.
The roe-bucks remain in winter in the thickest coppices and feed on
briars, broom, heath, &c. In spring they repair to the more open
brush-wood, and browze upon the buds and young leaves of almost every
tree: this warm food, fermenting in their stomachs, inebriate them
to such a degree that they are then easily surprised; for they know
not whither they go; frequently come out of the woods, will approach
flocks of cattle, and even the habitations of men. In summer they
inhabit the more lofty coppices, from which they seldom issue, except
in extreme heats to drink at some cool fountain; for when the dew lies
in quantities, or the leaves are moistened with rain, they never drink.
They select the choicest kinds of aliment, being extremely delicate in
their eating, neither feeding with the same indifference nor avidity as
the stag, and seldom approaching cultivated ground. The flesh of these
animals is excellent food, yet there is much distinction to be made in
the choice of the venison. The quality depends greatly upon the country
in which they have lived; although in the most plentiful, both good and
bad are to be found. The flesh of the brown roe-buck is more delicate
than that of the red: that of those which have passed the second year
is tough and ill-tasted, while that of the females, though further
advanced in years, is more tender. Those which are bred in plains and
valleys are not good; those from moist lands still worse; there is
but little taste in those reared in parks, and, in a word, there are
no good roe-bucks but those which have inhabited dry and elevated
countries, interspersed with little hills, woods, arable lands and
streams, where they have a sufficiency of good air, food, freedom, and
above all, solitude; for such as have been often disturbed are thin,
and the flesh of those which have been frequently hunted previously, is
tasteless and insipid.
This species, which is not so numerous as that of the stag, and seldom
found in many parts of Europe, is much more abundant in America,
where there are but two sorts; the red, which are large, and a brown
one considerably smaller, which has a white spot behind; and as they
are found both in the northern and southern parts of America, it is
probable that they differ more from each other than from those in
Europe. In Louisiana[H] they are extremely common, and are larger than
those in France. They are also found in Brasil; for the animal which
is there called _Cujuacu-apara_, differs not more from the European
roe-buck, than the Canadian stag from ours. There is only some little
variation in the form of the horns. "In Brasil, says Piso, there are
two sorts of the roe-buck, one of which has no horns, and is called
the _Cujuacu-été_, and the other is furnished with horns, and is called
_Cujuacu-apara_. The horned ones are much less than the others; their
hair is smooth, glossy, and a mixture of brown and white, when they
are young, but the white is lost as they advance in years. The hoof is
divided into two black toes, upon each of which there appears to be
grafted another and smaller one; the tail is short, the eyes large and
black, the nostrils open, the horns are of a middling size, and fall
off annually. The females go five or six months with their young;" and
another author adds, "that their horns are divided into three branches,
and that the lowest branch is the longest, and divides into two." We
may fairly conclude from the above descriptions, that the _apara_ is
a variety of the species of the roe-buck; and Ray supposes that the
_Cujuacu-été_ and the _Cujuacu-apara_ are both of the same species,
and that one is the male and the other the female. I should acquiesce
in this opinion, if Piso had not expressly stated, that those which
have horns are smaller than the others; for it does not appear probable
that the females should be so much larger than the males, when in every
other place the contrary is the case. At the same time, although the
_Cujuacu-apara_ may be nothing more than a variety of our roe-buck, to
which the _capreolus marinus_ of Johnson may be added, I cannot pretend
to determine with respect to the _Cujuacu-été_, at least until we have
received more certain information.
[H] They make great use of the flesh of the roe-buck in Louisiana; it
is larger here than in Europe, and has horns like the stag, but differs
from it in its hair and colour; the inhabitants use it the same as
other people do mutton.