262 FOUR-FOOTED AMERICANS 



plain, slinking along cautiously behind such scant shel- 

 ter as they can find, or lying flat on the ground if no 

 cover ofl^ers. In the distance a bunch of Antelope are 

 feeding, their pronged horns showing them to be chiefly 

 males, who would run too swiftly and fight too bravely 

 if the single pair of Coyotes should follow them. 



'^ AV'hile the Coyotes are planning and plotting, let 

 us cross the plain and look at these Antelopes, who 

 were once, next to the Buffalo, the most plentiful of 

 our big game animals, even now liolding out bravely 

 against great persecution, which if it cannot be stopped 

 will, in another ten years, surely drive them out of 

 existence. 



"The Buffalo may thrive for a time in confinement, 

 but the Antelope does not, for he misses the Buffalo 

 grass of his native plains. 



" The Pronghorn is a compact animal, with more the 

 shape of a Bighorn than of his cousin the Deer. He 

 measures three feet to the shoulder, has a short body, 

 antl is very easy to identify, first by the black horns 

 with double prongs that grow just above and between 

 the large, deep brown eyes, next by the neck bands of 

 brown and wdiite, then by the white rump, the straw- 

 like hair of tlie back being dun color, like the coat of 

 a Jersey cow. The eyes of the Antelope are of won- 

 derful size and brilliancy, and they are among the 

 keenest eyed of our fourfoots. The doe (as the female 

 is usually called in the Deer family) does not wear 

 horns. 



" The twin horns of the little male fawns begin to 

 grow when they are four months old, and are shed in 

 midwinter or early spring, but the old bucks usually 



