Learning R

Colophon

The animals on the cover of Learning R are roe deer (Capreolus capreolus), a species of deer found throughout much of Europe, Scandinavia, and the Mediterranean region. Roe is derived from the Old English word for “spotted,” though other translations show that it might be an ancient word for “red.”

The roe deer is rather small (averaging 3–4 feet long and around 2 feet tall at the shoulders), with long graceful legs. Male roe have short antlers with just a few branches, but are otherwise nearly the same size as female roe. These deer also have very short tails with a white rump patch, which they flash when alarmed by something. In the summer, their coats are red, but fade to gray or pale brown in the winter. Their fawns are born in summer after a 10-month gestation period, and have white spots for their first six weeks of life.

Woodland is the preferred habitat of the roe deer, though they also graze in grasslands and sparse forests. Occasionally they can be found near farms, but tend to avoid fields where livestock have been kept, perhaps because the grass is trampled and less clean. They eat grass, shoots, leaves, and berries, and are most active at twilight.

In the Austrian books upon which the classic Disney film Bambi was based, Bambi was a roe deer—but Disney changed the character to a white-tailed deer, which was more familiar to North American audiences.

The cover image is from Cassell’s Natural History. The cover font is Adobe ITC Garamond. The text font is Adobe Minion ...