The smallest and most elegant native deer in Europe. Coloration is rich reddish-brown in summer, with a gray face, white chin and black muzzle band. Rump patch is obscure. Winter coat is grayish-brown, with two white throat patches and a prominent white rump patch of erectile hairs that can expand under stress to form a large white disk. Tail is small and white, invisible against the rump. A few melanistic (blackish) roe deer occur in the Netherlands and northwestern Germany, but are rare elsewhere, as are other color variations such as black-faced, albino, black and white, and brown and white. Normal antlers of a mature buck consist of a main beam directed upward, with a lower forward tine and a higher rearward tine making three points to a side. (However, non-typical antlers with 4-5 points on a side are not uncommon.) Antlers have a very rough burr (coronet) around the base, and grow so closely together that the coronets usually touch in mature animals. The skull is broad, with a compressed muzzle. The female does not grow antlers, but occasionally will grow coronets without any antler growth. In winter, females grow a prominent anal tuft of long hair that may be mistaken for a tail.