They have not a great tail and do not gather venison as I have said, the greatest grease that they may have within is when the kidneys be covered all white. When the hounds hunt after the roebuck they turn again into their haunts and sometimes turn again to the hounds[59]. When they see that they cannot dure[60] (last) they leave the country and run right long ere they be dead. And they run in and out a long time and beat the brooks in the same way a hart doth. And if the roebuck were as fair a beast as the hart, I hold that it were a fairer hunting than that of the hart, for it lasteth all the year and is good hunting and requires great mastery, for they run right long and gynnously (cunningly). Although they mew their heads they do not reburnish them, nor repair their hair till new grass time. It is a diverse (peculiar) beast, for it doth nothing after the nature of any other beast, and he followeth men into their houses, for when he is hunted and overcome he knoweth never where he goeth. The flesh of the roebuck is the most wholesome to eat of any other wild beast's flesh, they live on good herbs and other woods and vines and on briars and hawthorns[61] with leaves and on all growth of young trees. When the female has her kids she does all in the manner as I have said of a hind. When they be in bucking they sing a right foul song, for it seemeth as if they were bitten by hounds. When they run at their ease they run ever with leaps, but when they be weary or followed by hounds they run naturally and sometimes they trot or go apace, and sometimes they hasten and do not leap, and then men say that the roebuck hath lost his leaps, and they say amiss, for he ever leaves off leaping when he is well hasted and also when he is weary. [59] "They ring about in their own country, and often bound back to the hounds" would be a better translation. [60] From the French _durer_, to last. [61] G. de F. says "acorns." When he runneth at the beginning, as I have said, he runneth with leaps and with rugged standing hair and the eres[62] (target) and the tail cropping up all white. [62] Middle English _ars_, hinder parts called target of roebuck. And when he hath run long his hair lyeth sleek down, not standing nor rugged and his eres (target) does not show so white. And when he can run no longer he cometh and yieldeth himself to some small brook, and when he hath long beaten the brook upward or downward he remaineth in the water under some roots so that there is nothing out of water save his head. [Illustration: ROEBUCK-HUNTING WITH GREYHOUNDS AND RUNNING HOUNDS (From MS. f. fr. 616, _Bib. Nat._, Paris)]