General Attributes
The majority of references to deer are specifically to the stag, the male deer. Only a few manuscripts include the doe, the female deer. The doe is sometimes illustrated in company with the stag, but rarely on its own. Bestiary allegory is about the stag.
The female deer can only conceive at the rising of the star Arcturus. The deer gives birth in dense woods, and teaches her young to flee over high places. When they hear hunting dogs bark, they change direction to the other wind to keep the dogs from scenting them. The doe is captured by the sound of the pipe, and they are charmed by singing.
The Latin name for the doe, dammula, in a slightly different spelling (damula) is also used by Bartholomaeus Anglicus to refer to the wild goat. The description suggests that Bartholomaeus confused the two animals, since it is very similar to the description of the doe.
Reality
The name capreloa is used as a name for the roe deer but it is also used for a kind of goat. In modern taxonomy, Capreolus capreolus is the species name for the roe deer, common throughout Europe.