The Prongborn Antelope 103 



on any such subject is entitled to unqualified re- 

 spect. 



Difference in habits may be due simply to dif- 

 ference of locality, or to the need of adaptation to 

 new conditions. The prongbuck's habits about 

 migration offer examples of the former kind of 

 difference. Over portions of its range the prong- 

 buck is not migratory at all. In other parts the 

 migrations are purely local. In yet other regions 

 the migrations are continued for great distances, 

 immense multitudes of the animals going to and 

 fro in the spring and fall along well-beaten tracks. 

 I know of one place in New Mexico where the 

 pronghorn herds are tenants of certain great plains 

 throughout the entire year. I know another 

 region in northwestern Colorado where the very 

 few prongbucks still left, though they shift from 

 valley to valley, yet spend the whole year in the 

 same stretch of rolling, barren country. On the 

 Little Missouri, however, during the eighties and 

 early nineties, there was a very distinct though 

 usually local migration. Before the Black Hills had 

 been settled they were famous wintering places for 

 the antelope, which swarmed from great distances 

 to them when cold weather approached ; those which 

 had summered east of the Big Missouri actually 

 swam the river in great herds, on their journey to 

 the Hills. The old hunters around my ranch in- 

 sisted that formerly the prongbuck had for the 



