THE NATIONAL ZOO AT WASHINGTON 703 



fall, without thereby making his stand the center of a rush of ruthless 

 hunters. But many of our forest animals are still unprovided for. 

 The bighorn sheep, the coast blacktail, the mule deer, the moose, and 

 the mountain goat, as well as the grizzly bear, so rapidly following 

 the buffalo, have as yet no refuge in the National Zoo. 



It is too late to talk of such species as the great auk, the Labrador 

 duck, and the West India seal; and in one year, or at most two years, 

 unless Congress is willing to devote the price, or at least half the price, 

 of a single big gun to it, the world will have lost forever the great 

 Alaskan bear, the largest and most wonderful of its race. 



II. 



The paddock immediately to the left on entering by the west gate of 

 the Zoological Park brings us face to face with the first game animals 

 that met the eyes of the Pilgrim Fathers, as well as those of the first 

 settlers of Virginia; and it is tolerably certain that General Washing- 

 ton himself hunted the superb creature, the Virginia deer, over this 

 very ground where it is now protected in the city of Washington and 

 assured a little land of lasting peace. 



Of all the American game animals the Virginia or whitetail deer is 

 the greatest success as a species; that is, it has developed a better com- 

 bination of hardiness, fecundity, speed, intelligence, keen wits, and 

 adaptability than any of its relatives, and therefore maintains itself 

 better in spite of the hunter. Its ancient range covered all of the 

 United States east of the Rockies, as well as part of Canada, and 

 to-da} T , notwithstanding guns, more numerous and deadly each year, 

 there are whitetail deer in every part of their original range that still 

 contains primitive woods. 



In the list giving the probable order of extinction of our great game 

 it will be seen that the Virginia deer stands last, despite the fact that 

 it is the only one in that list whose home is in the thickly settled East- 

 ern States. An incident will show the respect in which hunters hold 

 the whitetail's gift for taking care of himself. 



During October of 1899 I was staying at a camp on the east side of 

 the Rockies. One morning a miner came in and reported that he had 

 started four deer less than a mile away. Meat was scarce, and a hunter 

 present became keenly interested. 



"Whitetails or blacktails?" said he. 



kw Whitetails," said the miner. 



"That settles it," said the hunter, resuming his seat by the lire. 

 "If they were blacktails I'd get one within a mile, but a scared white- 

 tail knows too much for me." 



Although some of the deer in this paddock were born in the park, 

 they show many of their wild habits. During the heat of the day they 

 lie hidden among the bushes at the back end of their range; but early 



