86 Mr. J. E. Harting ou Forest Animals.
at Milton, from whence their descendants dispersed in a
very short space of time, especially in a south-westerly
direction.
A resident in that neighbourhood, Mr. J. C. Mansell
Pleydell, estimated last year (1879),* that there were no
less than 120 head in the Milton, Whatcombe, and
Houghton Woods, which fringe the southern side of the
Vale of Blackmore, from Stoke Wake to Melcombe Park
and the Grange Wood westward, the number being merely
a question of preservation or non-preservation.
The roe-deer was once much more common in Scotland
than it is at present, but it is still very plentiful, and has
much increased of late years. It is believed that the
increase of plantations in the south of Scotland has been
the means of spreading it much farther in that direction
than it used formerly to be found.
In Ireland the roe-deer is unknown, notwithstanding
the statement of Bede, so quaintly contradicted by John of
Trevisa ; nor have remains of this animal been discovered
in the sister isle.
Those who would learn something of the habits of the
roe-deer, from one who has had frequent opportunities of
observing it, should read the excellent account given in
the second volume of Stuart's "Lays of the Deer Forest;"
nor should they omit to peruse the equally trustworthy
account furnished by the author of "The Moor and the
Loch."
One of the most curious points in the history of the roe-
deer, but one on which I need not now enter in detail, is
the phenomenon now known as "suspended gestation,"
and which long puzzled sportsmen and naturalists, until
the scientific researches of Professor Bischoff, of Giessen,
the well-known embryologist, placed the matter in a clear
light. The result of his investigations will be found in the
second edition of Bell's "British Quadrupeds." Unlike
the red-deer, the roe generally has two fawns, and very
rarely three have been observed with a doe.† These, like
* See The Zoologist, 1879, pp. 120, 170, 209, 262, 301.
† The Field, Sept. 2nd, 1871.