Whitetailed Deer 89 



that lasted over ten minutes. Either the Deer gets to water 

 or some clearing or road where the Wolves will not follow, or 

 else he is killed at once. Very often they drag a Deer down 

 within a few jumps of where he starts. In Michigan and Wis- 

 consin, during winter, Deer generally feed along the edge of 

 a swamp under thick hemlocks where there is plenty of ground 

 hemlock, and the Wolves generally come in on them from two 

 ways and drive them toward the swamp, and they will nearly 

 always kill them within forty rods of where they start." 



This is readily understood in country where Deer and other 

 game animals abound. The Wolf knows very well that the 

 Deer is far fleeter than itself and that, if it fails in that first 

 dash, it is easier to go elsewhere and try to surprise another 

 Deer. But when desperately hungry, in regions where Deer 

 are not so plentiful, a Wolf will stick to any Deer it starts and 

 will follow it to a finish, however far. I have heard accounts 

 of many old Ontario hunters that entirely support this belief. 

 These facts, it will be seen, are not opposed to those advanced 

 by E. T. Merrill. 



The Hon. George A. Shiras tells me that in the spring of 

 1906 he examined carefully a cedar-swamp in Alger County, 

 northern Michigan, and found within a radius of three miles 

 325 carcasses of Deer killed by Wolves during the past winter. 



It seems likely that Foxes will kill the very young fawns 

 if they find them unprotected. There is, at least, good evidence 

 that the Deer reckon the Fox as one of their foes. 



W. G. Rockefeller tells me that about November i, 1904, as 

 he was still-hunting in the Adirondacks, he came on a Deer 

 that was leaping about in an extraordinary way. On getting 

 near he found it a doe in pursuit of a Fox. The Fox was run- 

 ning and dodging under logs or any other cover he could find; 

 but the doe was intent on killing him, and would have succeeded, 

 doubtless, had not my informant interfered by shooting the 

 Fox. The doe was closely followed by her fawn of the year. 



This same sportsman knew of a buck that discovered a 

 Fox held in a trap. The Deer, promptly taking advantage 



