100 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



that Is protective as they crouch in the leaves, and is exquisitely 

 beautiful when, later on, they bound or glide by their mother's 

 side to the appreciative mirror furnished by their daily drink- 

 ing pool. 



At four or five weeks of age — that is, about the beginning 

 of July — they begin to follow their mother. I examined one, 

 however, that was found hidden in the grass near Dauphin 

 Lake, Manitoba, as late as the 22d of August. 



Analogy would prove that the fawns begin to eat solid 

 food at this time. They develop rapidly and become very 

 swift-footed. Some hunters maintain that they are even 

 swifter than their parents, but this is, I think, not the case. 

 As already noted, it is a rule that, of two animals going at the 

 same rate, the smaller always appears to he the faster. 



Their daily lives now are as unvaried as they can make 

 them. They rest in some cool shelter during the heat of the 

 morning, and about noon they go to their drinking place. 



This daily drink is essential, and yet the map (p. 75) 

 shows the Whitetail of the far South-west to be a dweller in 

 arid country where no water is. Here, like the Antelope, 

 they find their water-supply in the leaves and shoots of the 

 provident cactus, which is among plants what the camel is 

 among beasts — a living tank — able to store up, in times of rain, 

 enough water for the thirsty days to come. 



The mother Whitetail, after a copious draught, sufficient 

 to last all day long, retires again with her family to chew the 

 cud in their old retreat, where they escape the deer-flies and 

 heat, but suffer the mosquitoes and ticks. As the sun lowers 

 they get up and go forth stealthily to feed, perhaps by the margin 

 of the forest, where grow their favourite grasses, or the nearest 

 pond, where the lily-pads abound, and root, stem, or leaf pro- 

 vide a feast that will tempt the Deer from afar. They munch 

 away till the night grows black, then sneak back to some other 

 part of the home covert, rarely the same bed, where they doze 

 or chew the cud till dawn comes on. Then, again, they take 

 advantage of the half-light that they love, and go foraging till 

 warned by the sunrise that they must once more hide away. 



