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Roe: Mischief done by — Fawns — Tame Roe — Boy killed by Roe — Hunting
Roe: Artifices of — Shooting Roe — Unlucky shot — Change of colour —
Swimming — Cunning Roe.
As the spring advances, and the larch and
other deciduous trees again put out their foliage, I see the tracks of roe
and the animals themselves in new and unaccustomed places. They now betake
themselves very much to the smaller and younger plantations, where they
can find plenty of one of their most favourite articles of food—the shoots
of the young trees. Much as I like to see these animals (and certainly the
roebuck is the most perfectly formed of all deer), I must confess that they commit great havoc
in plantations of hard wood. As fast as the young oak trees put out new
shoots the roe nibble them off, keeping the trees from growing above three
or four feet in height by constantly biting off the leading shoot. Besides
this, they peel the young larch with both their teeth and horns, stripping
them of their bark in the neatest manner imaginable. One can scarcely
wonder at the anathemas uttered against them by proprietors of young
plantations. Always graceful, a roebuck is peculiarly so when stripping
some young tree of its leaves, nibbling them off one by one in the most
delicate and dainty manner. I have watched a roe strip the leaves off a
long bramble shoot, beginning at one end and nibbling off every leaf My
rifle was aimed at his heart and my finger was on the trigger, but I made
some excuse or other to myself for not killing him, and left him
undisturbed—his beauty saved him. The leaves and flowers of the wild
rose-bush are another favourite food of the roe. just before they produce
their calves the does wander about a great deal, and seem to avoid the
society of the buck, though they remain together during the whole autumn
and winter. The young roe is soon able to escape from most of its enemies.
For a day or two it is quite helpless, and frequently falls a prey to the
fox, who at that time of the year is more ravenous than at any other, as
it then has to find food to satisfy the carnivorous appetites of its own
cubs. A young roe, when caught unhurt, is not difficult to rear, though
their great tenderness and delicacy of limb makes it not easy to handle
them without injuring them. They soon become perfectly tame and attach
themselves to their master. When in captivity they will eat almost
anything that is offered to them, and from this cause are frequently
destroyed, picking up and swallowing some indigestible substance about the
house. A tame buck, however, becomes a dangerous pet; for after attaining
to his full strength he is very apt to make use of it in attacking people
whose appearance he does not like. They Particularly single out women and
children as their victims, and inflict severe and dangerous wounds with
their sharp-pointed horns, and notwithstanding their small size, their
strength and activity make them a very unpleasant adversary. One day, at a
kind of public garden near Brighton, I saw a beautiful but very small
roebuck in an enclosure fastened with a chain, which seemed strong enough
and heavy enough to hold and weigh down an elephant. Pitying the poor
animal, an exile from his native land, I asked what reason they could have
for ill-using him by putting such a weight of iron about his neck. The
keeper of the place, however, told me that small as the roebuck was, the
chain was quite necessary, as he had attacked and killed a boy of twelve
years old a few days before, stabbing the poor fellow in fifty places with
his sharp-pointed horns. Of course I had no more to urge in his behalf. In
its native wilds no animal is more timid, and eager to avoid all risk of
danger. The roe has peculiarly acute organs of sight, smelling, and
hearing, and makes good use of all three in avoiding its enemies.
In shooting roe, it depends so much on the
cover and other local causes whether dogs or beaters should be used, that
no rule can be laid down as to which is best. Nothing is more exciting
than running roe with beagles, where the ground is suitable, and the
covers so situated that the dogs and their game are frequently in sight.
The hounds for roe-shooting should be small and slow. Dwarf harriers are
the best, or good - sized rabbit-beagles, where the ground is not too
rough. The roe, when hunted by small dogs of this kind, does not make
away, but runs generally in a circle, and is seldom above a couple of
hundred yards ahead of the beagles, stopping every now and then to listen,
and allowing them to come very near, before he goes off again; in this
way, giving the sportsman a good chance of knowing where the deer is
during most of the run. Many people use fox-hounds for roe-shooting, but
generally these dogs run too fast, and press the roebuck so much that he
will not stand it, but leaves the cover, and goes straightway out of reach
of the sportsman, who is left to cool himself without any hope of a shot.
Besides this, you entirely banish roe from the cover if you hunt them
frequently with fast hounds, as no animal more delights in quiet and
solitude, or will less put up with too much driving. In most woods beaters
are better for shooting roe with than dogs, though the combined cunning
and timidity of the animal frequently make it double back through the
midst of the rank of beaters; particularly if it has any suspicion of a
concealed enemy, in consequence of having scented or heard the shooters at
their posts, for it prefers facing the shouts and noise of the beaters to
passing within reach of a hidden danger, the extent and nature of which it
has not ascertained. By taking advantage of the animal's timidity and
shyness in this respect, I have frequently got shots at roe in large woods
by placing people in situations where the animal could smell them but not
see them, thus driving it back to my place of concealment. Though they
generally prefer the warmest and driest part of the woods to lie in, I
have sometimes, when looking for ducks, started roe in the marshy grounds,
where they lie close in the tufts of long heather and rushes. Being much
tormented with ticks and wood-flies, they frequently in the hot weather
betake themselves not only to these marshy places, but even to the fields
of high corn, where they sit in a form like a hare. Being good swimmers,
they cross rivers without hesitation in their way to and from their
favourite feeding-places; indeed, I have often known roe pass across the
river daily, living on one side, and going to feed every evening on the
other. Even when wounded, I have seen a roebuck beat three powerful and
active dogs in the water, keeping ahead of them, and requiring another
shot before he was secured. Though very much attached to each other, and
living mostly in pairs, I have known a doe take up her abode for several
years in a solitary strip of wood. Every season she crossed a large extent
of hill to find a mate, and returned after two or three weeks' absence.
When her young ones, which she produced ever year, were come to their full
size, they always went away, leaving their mother in solitary possession
of her wood.
The roe almost always keep to woodland, but I
have known a stray roebuck take to lying out on the hill at some distance
from the covers. I had frequently started this buck out of glens and
hollows several miles from the woods. One day, as I was stalking some
hinds in a broken part of the hill, and had got within two hundred yards
of one of them, a fine fat barren hind, the roebuck started out of a
hollow between me and the red deer, and galloping straight towards them,
gave the alarm, and they all made off. The buck, however, got confused by
the noise and galloping of the larger animals, and, turning back, passed
me within fifty yards. So, to punish him for spoiling my sport, I took a
deliberate aim as he went quickly but steadily on, and killed him dead. I
happened to be alone that day, so I shouldered my buck and walked home
with him, a three hours' distance of rough ground, and I was tired enough
of his weight before I reached the house. In shooting roe, shot is at all
times far preferable to ball. The latter, though well aimed, frequently
passes clean through the animal, apparently without injuring him, and the
poor creature goes away to die in some hidden corner; whereas a charge of
shot gives him such a shock that he drops much more readily to it than to
a rifle-ball, unless, indeed, the ball happens to strike the heart or
spine. Having killed roe constantly with both rifle and gun, small shot
and large, I am inclined to think that the most effective charge is an
Eley's cartridge with No. 2 'shot in it. I have, when woodcock-shooting,
frequently killed roe with No. 6 shot, as when they are going across and
are shot well forward, they are as easy to kill as a hare, though they
will carry off a great deal of shot if hit too far behind. No one should
ever shoot roe without some well-trained dog to follow them when wounded;
as no animal is more often lost when mortally wounded.
Where numerous, roe are very mischievous to
both corn and turnips, eating and destroying great quantities, and as they
feed generally in the dark, lying still all day, their devastations are
difficult to guard against. Their acute sense of smelling enables them to
detect the approach of any danger, when they bound off to their coverts,
ready to return as soon as it is past. In April they go great distances to
feed on the clover-fields, where the young plants are then just springing
up. In autumn, the ripening oats are their favourite food, and in winter,
the turnips, wherever these crops are at hand, or within reach from the
woods. A curious and melancholy accident happened in a parish situated in
one of the eastern counties of Scotland a few years ago. Perhaps the most
extraordinary part of the story is that it is perfectly true. Some idle
fellows of the village near the place where the catastrophe happened
having heard that the roe and deer from the neighbouring woods were in the
habit of feeding in some fields of high corn, two of them repaired to the
place in the dusk of the evening with a loaded gun, to wait for the
arrival of the deer at their nightly feeding ground. They had waited some
time, and the evening shades were making all objects more and more
indistinct every moment, when they heard a rustling in the standing corn
at a short distance from them, and looking in the direction, they saw some
large animal moving. Having no doubt that it was a deer that they saw, the
man who had the gun took his aim, his finger was on the trigger, and his
eye along the barrel; he waited, however, to get a clearer view of the
animal, which had ceased moving. At this instant, his companion, who was
close to him, saw, to his astonishment, the flash of a gun from the spot
where the supposed deer was, and almost before he heard the report his
companion fell back dead upon him, and with the same ball he himself
received a mortal wound. The horror and astonishment of the author of this
unlucky deed can scarcely be imagined when, on running up, he found,
instead of a deer, one man lying dead and another senseless and mortally
wounded. Luckily, as it happened, the wounded man lived long enough to
declare before witnesses that his death was occasioned solely by accident,
and that his companion, at the moment of his being killed, was aiming at
the man who killed them. The latter did not long survive the affair.
Struck with grief and sorrow at the mistake he had committed, his mind and
health gave way, and he died soon afterwards.
The difference in the colour and kind of hair
that a roe's skin is covered with, at different seasons of the year, is
astonishingly great. From May to October they are covered with bright red
brown hair, and but little of it. In winter their coat is a fine dark
mouse-colour, very long and close, but the hair is brittle, and breaks
easily in the hand like dried grass. When run with greyhounds, the roebuck
at first leaves the dogs far behind, but if pressed and unable to make his
usual cover, he appears to become confused and exhausted, his bounds
become shorter, and he seems to give up the race. In wood, when driven,
they invariably keep as much as they can to the closest portions of the
cover, and in going from one part to another follow the line where the
trees stand nearest to each other, avoiding the more open parts as long as
possible. For some unknown reason, as they do it without any apparent
cause, such as being hard hunted, or driven by want of food, the roe
sometimes take it into their heads to swim across wide pieces of water,
and even arms of the sea. I have known roe caught by boatmen in the
Cromarty Firth, swimming strongly across the entrance of the bay, and
making good way against the current of the tide, which runs there with
great rapidity. Higher up the same firth, too, roe have been caught when
in the act of crossing. When driven by hounds, I have seen one swim Loch
Ness. They are possessed of great cunning in doubling and turning to elude
these persevering enemies. I used to shoot roe to fox-hounds, and one day
was much amused by watching an old roebuck, who had been run for some time
by three of my dogs. I was lying concealed on a height above him, and saw
the poor animal go upon a small mound covered with young fir-trees. He
stood there till the hounds were close on him, though not in view; then
taking a great leap at right angles to the course in which he had before
been running, he lay flat down with his head on the ground, completely
throwing out the hounds, who had to cast about in order to find his track
again; when one bitch appeared to be coming straight upon the buck, he
rose quietly up, and crept in a stooping position round the mound, getting
behind the dogs. In this way, on a very small space of ground, he managed
for a quarter of an hour to keep out of view of, though close to, three
capital hounds, well accustomed to roe-hunting. Sometimes he squatted flat
on the ground, and at others leaped off at an angle, till having rested
himself, and the hounds having made a wide cast, fancying that he had left
the place, the buck took an opportunity to slip off unobserved, and
crossing an opening in the wood, came straight up the hill to me, when I
shot him.
The greatest drawback to preserving roe to any
great extent is, that they are so shy and nocturnal in their habits that
they seldom show themselves in the daytime. I sometimes see a roe passing
like a shadow through the trees, or standing gazing at me from a distance
in some sequestered glade; but, generally speaking, they are no ornament
about a place, their presence being only known by the mischief they do to
the young plantations and to the crops. A keeper in Kincardineshire this
year told me that he had often early in the morning counted above twenty
roe in a single turnip-field. As for the sport afforded by shooting them,
I never killed one without regretting it, and wishing that I could bring
the poor animal to life again. I do not think that roe are sufficiently
appreciated as venison, yet they are excellent eating when killed in
proper season, between October and February, and of a proper age. In
summer the meat is not worth cooking, being dry, and sometimes rank.
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