Whitetailed Deer 107 



feet, whose sharp hoofs are capable of inflicting terrible wounds. 

 I was once sitting quietly on a log in a Deer park when a buck 

 approached, and, making a sudden spring, dealt me such a 

 powerful blow on the head with the hoofs of his fore-feet, as to 

 render me unconscious. No sooner was I thrown upon the 

 ground than the vicious beast sprang upon me and would 

 doubtless have killed me outright had it not been for the 

 intervention of a man, who rushed at him with a club and 

 finally drove him off." 



A similar experience is related by J. Parker Whitney. 



**It is very rare [he says"^] that a buck, however large and 

 savage, will charge a stalker without provocation, but occasion- 

 ally in the mating season, when wounded, they will charge. I 

 had an encounter of this kind in 1859, on my second visit to 

 this region, from which I escaped with scarcely a scratch, killing 

 a buck which dressed up 230 pounds, with a single heart- 

 thrust of my hunting-knife. It was before the day of the re- 

 peating rifles. I had barely time to drop my rifle and step 

 aside and draw my hunting-knife when I was borne down into 

 the snow by the weight of the descending buck, which I caught 

 about the neck, and as he rose drove my knife to the hilt in 

 his chest at the junction of the throat, severing his wind- 

 pipe and splitting his heart. Death was instantaneous. I 

 had difficulty in withdrawing myself quickly enough to escape 

 the red torrent of life-blood which gushed forth." 



If, however, the Deer is the conqueror, he never ceases to 

 batter, spear, and trample his victim as long as any sign of life 

 remains. 



Several hunters have related to me how, when downed in 

 the snow by some furious buck, they have saved their lives by 

 feigning death. Their stillness convinced the stag that his 

 revenge was complete, and he slowly withdrew, casting, never- 

 theless, many a backward glance to satisfy himself that truly 

 his foe was done for. 



But it is for the rival of his own race that his weapons 



"Forest and Stream, December 26, 1896, p. 508. 



