140 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



its most wonderful gift. I shall never forget the first time I 

 saw this bounding in the sandhills near Carberry. It was my 

 first sight not merely of Blacktail but of any wild Deer, and the 

 marvellous manner of its flight, as entered in my journal of the 

 time, ran thus: 



"I stood gazing at the graceful creatures for a moment or 

 two, then they moved off a little and commenced to rise in the 

 air with a peculiar bounding movement, although without any 

 apparent effort. They seemed to be playing, their movements 

 were so entirely without any appearance of haste or alarm. 

 It did not occur to me at first that they were running away. 

 The idea I had in my mind of a Deer speeding was formed on 

 seeing a dog or fox. I expected to see the laboured straining 

 and the vast athletic bounds. But no! these evidently had not 

 yet commenced to run, they seemed to be merely bounding up 

 and down in the air, and it was only on noting the different 

 hilltops which their feet touched lightly in succession and by 

 seeing the fair, rounded forms rapidly becoming smaller in the 

 distance that it dawned on me that now they were flying for 

 safety. 



"Higher and higher they rose each time; gracefully their 

 bodies swayed inward as they described a curve along some 

 bold ridge, or for a long space the white bannerets seemed 

 hanging in the air, while these wingless birds were really sailing 

 over a deep gully. I stood gazing until they were out of sight, 

 and it never occured to me to shoot. 



"When they were gone I went to their trail, where they had 

 appeared to be rising and falling over the same place. Here 

 was one track, where was the next .? I looked all round, and 

 was surprised to see a blank for 15 feet. I went on — 

 another blank, and again and again. The blanks increased 

 to 18 feet, then to 20 and then to 25. Each of these playful, 

 effortless bounds covered a space of 18 to 25 feet. Ye gods! 

 they do not run at all, they fly, and once in a while come down 

 again to tap the hilltops with their dainty hoofs." 



There is nothing more poetic in four-legged speed than the 

 flight of the bounding Blacktail, and I have shown it to more 



