Mule-deer 131 



lines that prevent the bucks hurting each other, rather than as 

 deadly weapons, and in most cases the battle is little more than 

 a pushing bout. 



During winter the Blacktail continue in mixed bands winter 

 of all ages and sexes, usually under the leadership of an old 

 doe who is the great grandmother of most of them. 



In some favoured parts of the country these winter bands 

 become very large. For example, in the Bitterroots, as al- 

 ready noted, and on the Okanagan, as I learn from E. J. 

 Duchesnay, C. E. About April i, 1892, as he was riding around 

 the south-west corner of Dog Lake, which is an expansion of 

 Okanagan River, he came on numerous bands of Blacktailed 

 Deer, and during the day saw between 400 and 500. At one 

 time the bunches were so thick that the whole of a hillside 

 seemed moving with Deer. 



Their food at this time is twigs, browse, what ground 

 stuff they can get by nosing and pawing under the snow, and 

 what tree stuff they can reach by standing on their hind legs. 

 The various tree mosses, beardy-mosses, and lichen are es- 

 pecially sought after. My guide in that country, Abe Leeds, 

 of Hamilton, Mont., described an interesting circumstance in 

 the winter life of a fawn. It was in the winter of 1898-9 he 

 went with his partner to the Upper Clearwater to build a 

 shanty as head-quarters for hunting-trips. Deer were plentiful, 

 and some began, as usual, to hang around where they salted 

 the horses; among them was a little fawn of the year. He was 

 a miserable, pot-bellied little specimen, seeming as though he 

 had been left at an early age to shift for himself. He spent 

 his whole time about the camp; the men began to put mossy 

 branches where he could get them, and soon he came regularly 

 to be fed. Each day they cut down a mossy tree for him, and 

 at length he would come tearing down the hill as soon as he 

 heard the axe, then would stand with his head cocked to one 

 side, watching till he saw where the tree was going to fall, and 

 would be into the top as soon as it touched the ground. 



A big buck also learned the meaning of the tree-felling, 



