Prongbuck 243 



the bucks of the Mule and Whitetail Deer. If there are no 

 does present I have sometimes watched a buck run to and fro 

 by himself. The first time I saw this I was greatly interested, 

 and could form no idea of what the buck was doing. He was 

 by a creek bed in a slight depression or shallow valley, and 

 was grazing uneasily. After a little while he suddenly started 

 and ran just as hard as he could, off in a straight direction, 

 nearly away from me. I thought that somehow or other he 

 had discovered my presence; but he suddenly wheeled and 

 came back to the original place, still running at his utmost 

 speed. Then he halted, moved about with the white hairs 

 on his rump outspread, and again dashed off at full speed, 

 halted, wheeled, and came back. Two or three times he did 

 this, and let me get up very close to him before he discovered 

 me. I was too much interested in what he was doing to desire 

 to shoot him." 



The passion of the bucks takes very definite form when, 

 later, the females manifest signs of response, and the battles 

 that ensue show all the savagery and greed that is characteristic 

 of the extremely polygamous creature that the Antelope is. 

 Canfield says" of his domesticated Antelope: "He was the 

 most salacious animal I have ever seen." 



"In September [says Roosevelt ^^], sometimes not earlier 

 than October, the big bucks begin to gather the does into 

 harems. Each buck is then constantly on the watch to protect 

 his harem from outsiders, and steal another doe, if he can get 

 a chance. I have seen a comparatively young buck who had 

 appropriated a doe, hustle her hastily out of the country as 

 soon as he saw another Antelope in the neighbourhood, while, 

 on the other hand, a big buck, already with a good herd 

 of does, will do his best to appropriate any other that comes 

 in sight." 



Roosevelt does not think these buck duels very serious fiGHx- 

 affairs, but Audubon says" "they fight with great courage and 

 even a degree of ferocity. * * * They strike with the 



*'' Caton. Antelope and Deer of America, 1877, p. 45. 



"Deer Family, 1903, p. no. " Q. N. A., 1849, Vol. II, p. 197. 



ING 



