Mule-deer 127 



The mixed company of all ages and sexes that wintered 

 together take advantage of the melted snow and better forage 

 to scatter from the place where common interest in the food 

 supply had kept them together. There is in particular a 

 repulsion between the sexes: if two Deer go off together at 

 this time they are two bucks or two does, but never buck and 

 doe. 



The association of pairs of bucks is a curious, well-known bucks 

 fact. 



Among the Red-deer of Scotland it is the rule for each 

 big stag to have with him, all summer, a small stag as attendant 

 or "squire." This follower is said to do sentinel duty for his 

 superior at all times except during the rut, when he is most 

 unceremoniously driven about his business elsewhere. Whether 

 any parallel to this exists in the present species remains to be 

 seen. It is, of course, quite common to see two bucks living 

 together all summer, and one is usually bigger than the other, 

 but observations are lacking to explain their relationship. 



The does become still less sociable as the May moon does 

 wanes, and are now to be seen feeding and living alone. 

 Grass and twigs are their staple foods, but there is little of 

 vegetable origin that they will not eat. They drink twice a 

 day, morning and evening. They are getting fat now and pre- 

 paring for the great event of the year— the arrival of the young 

 ones. This takes place in late May or in June. In some quiet 

 woodsy hollow the i, 2 or, rarely, 3 fawns are born. They fawns 

 appear in the white-spotted livery of true fawn-deer. It is like 

 that of a young Whitetail, but the ground colour is duller, 

 paler, and yellower. 



The mother hides them usually at different points in the 

 same thicket and comes to suckle them in the early morn and 

 late evening for six or even eight weeks before she allows them 

 to follow her. As late as July 30, in Manitoba, I have known 

 the fawn to be hidden, though now well grown and probably 

 seven or eight weeks old. The mother's vigilance and devo- 

 tion at this time are most admirable. Every possible danger 



