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Show 152 MR. J. E. HARTING ON CAPREOLUS CAPR^A. [Mar. 4, female T. lawesi is proportionately narrower, and its rostral portion longer than in the skull of the male T. aculeatus. Both specimens are quite adult; in the T. lawesi, which is the larger of the two, the limb-bones are, contrarily to what I expected, absolutely smaller, shorter, and more slender than in T. aculeatus. There is also a marked difference in the shape of the processus olecranoides of the fibula, narrow in T. lawesi, broad in 7. aculeatus ; but I am unable to decide whether these differences are merely sexual or specific. Mr. J. E. Harting, F.Z.S., exhibited and made remarks on some horns of the Roe-deer (Capreolus capraa) from Dorsetshire, contrasting them with Scotch horns of the same species, with which they favourably compared. He remarked that Dorsetshire was now the only English county in which the Roe was to be found in a truly wild state, and detailed the steps which had been lately taken, under his direction, to transport a few pairs to Epping Forest, the conservators of that forest being desirous to introduce the animal into haunts where it had been once common, but had long become extinct. Ou the occasion referred to, a couple were secured for the Society's Menagerie, whither they were safely transferred, being presented by Mr. J. C. Mansel Pleydell, of Whatcombe, and Mr. C. Hambro', of Milton Abbey, in whose woods they were captured. The number of Roe-deer at present roaming 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, is estimated to be about 150. From enquiries made of experienced keepers on the spot, Mr. Harting found that they discountenanced the generally accepted belief that the Roe is monogamous, asserting that in the breeding-season they often saw a buck consorting with two, aud occasionally three does. As this did not tally with the statements of foresters in Scotland and Germany, where the habits of the Roe-deer have been attentively studied, Mr. Harting regarded it as an error of observation, believing that the animals seen with the buck in the rutting-season were probably a doe with a fawn or fawns, which would not breed. In Dorsetshire the usual number of fawns produced at a birth is stated to be two, and these are dropped in April or the beginning of May, somewhat earlier than is the case with the Fallow Deer. In winter they are found scattered in little parties of three or four to ten or a dozen throughout the woods. The following papers were read: - |