Hunting in Many Lands 



sweet grass — has almost disappeared, although 

 formerly it grew in abundance. 



The forest glades through which we passed 

 had the appearance of a closely-cropped pas- 

 ture, as different as possible from the profu- 

 sion of tall grasses and beautiful flowering 

 plants which grow in similar openings un- 

 troubled by sheep. So far as the grasses are 

 concerned — or "grass," by which, I take it, is 

 ordinarily designated the foliage of the plant — 

 I doubt if it is molested to any great extent 

 by deer. Their diet is mainly the tender 

 leaves of plants — "weeds" to the unscientific 

 person. The heads of wild oats and of a few 

 of the grasses might prove sufficiently sweet 

 and tempting to arrest their fancy ; but as for 

 grazing, as sheep or cattle do, it is not their 

 habit. When deer shall have come to trudge 

 up hill in the plodding gait of the domestic 

 beasts, and shall have abandoned their present 

 method of ascending by a series of splendid 

 springing leaps and bounds, the very embodi- 

 ment of vigor and of wild activity, time enough 

 then for them to take to munching grass, the 

 sustenance of the harmless, necessary cow. At 

 present they are most fastidious in their food, 

 and select only the choicest, tenderest tips and 



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