HABIT AND DOMESTICATION. 289 



formerly so very tame have been less petted and have become 

 more shy, and do not come up to me with the confidence and 

 familiarity they once manifested. 



I often see the young bucks, that is, those three or four years 

 old and younger, engaged at play with their antlers as if in sham 

 fight, in the fall and winter. This is the only amusement I have 

 ever seen tliem engaged in. I have never observed the least dis- 

 position in the young fawns or the does to play together in any 

 way. 



Our Elk is more polygamous in his habits than any other deer 

 except his congener the Red Deer of Europe (^C. elaphus~), or 

 even any other quadruped with whose habits I am acquainted. 

 Although they show such a lack of affection or sympathy for each 

 other individually, still all are generally found together through- 

 out the year till the commencement of the rut, when the master 

 Elk asserts his prerogative, drives from the band all the other 

 bucks, and gathers the does around him and keeps them together 

 as much as possible. During this time the young bucks submit 

 with tolerable grace to this discipline, and mostly keep together 

 by themselves in a distant part of the park, generally with a few 

 does that have eluded the vigilance of the master. But some- 

 times a refractory young fellow will be seen hanging around the 

 skirts of the band of does and gives the despot great trouble, 

 which seems to be a real source of enjoyment to his tormentor. 

 If he shows himself too near, his senior will rush at him w.ith 

 a wild ferocity and chase him, with threatening squeals, perhaps 

 one or two hundred yards, making a terrible crash in the brush 

 during the chase, for the pursued seeks the thickest shrubbery 

 in his flight, and, if hard pressed, the youngster will utter a 

 shrill scream of alarm, but always manages to save his hide, and 

 stops short so soon as the pursuit is over, and follows back 

 pretty close upon the heels of the old buck, who hardly gets his 

 family well collected before his jealousy is again excited by the 

 impertinence of his tormentor, when another rush is made and 

 the maneuver is repeated. Where there are a dozen or more nearly 

 as large as himself, with twenty or thirty does to watch, the old 

 fellow has a distressing time of it, and sometimes he gets so 

 enraged that his defiant and threatening notes may be heard at 

 a great distance. This note so nearly resembles that of a steam 

 whistle, when pitched on a high key, that I have sometimes mis- 

 taken the one for the other when half a mile away. This note 

 is heard in the night much more than in the day time. This is 



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