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Roe and the hunting of Roe - Deer
CHAPTER II.
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-j)ointed
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 foxhounds 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
animars 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 liar . Being good swimmers, they cross
rivers without hesitation in their wc*y 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 every 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 exhaused, 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 foxhounds, 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 wrere 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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