48 Deer and Antelope of North America 



a longtime I believed it uttered no sound beyond 

 the snort of alarm and the rare bleat of the doe 

 to her fawn ; but one afternoon I heard two bucks 

 grunting or barking at one another in a ravine 

 back of the ranch-house, and crept up and shot 

 them. I was still uncertain whether this was an 

 indication of a regular habit ; but a couple of 

 years later, on a moonlight night just after sunset, 

 I heard a big buck travelling down a ravine and 

 continually barking, evidently as a love challenge. 

 I have been informed by some hunters that the 

 bucks at the time of the rut not infrequently thus 

 grunt and bark ; but most hunters are ignorant 

 of this habit ; and it is certainly not a common 

 practice. 



The species is not nearly as gregarious as the 

 wapiti or caribou. During the winter the bucks 

 are generally found singly, or in small parties by 

 themselves, although occasionally one will associ- 

 ate with a party of does and of young deer. When 

 in May or June — for the exact time varies with 

 the locality — the doe brings forth her young, she 

 retires to some lonely thicket. Sometimes one 

 and sometimes two fawns are brought forth. They 

 lie very close for the first few days. I have picked 

 them up and handled them without their making 

 the slightest effort to escape, while the mother 

 hung about a few hundred yards off. On one 

 occasion I by accident surprised a doe in the very 



