DESERT ANIMALS 



165 



bulges out almost like the end of an egg 

 and if there were corners on the desert mesas 

 I believe that eye could see around them. He 

 cannot be approached in any direction without 

 seeing what is going on ; but he may be still- 

 hunted and shot from behind crag or cover. 



His curiosity is usually the death of him, be- 

 cause he will persist in standing still and look- 

 ing at things ; but his senses almost always give 

 him fair warning. His nose and ears are just 

 as acute as his eyes. And how he can run ! 

 His legs seem to open and shut like the blades 

 of a pocket-knife, so leisurely, so apparently 

 effortless. But how they do take him over the 

 ground ! With one leg shot from under him 

 he runs pretty nearly as fast as before. A 

 tougher, more wiry, more beautiful animal was 

 never created. Perhaps that is the reason why 

 every man's hand has been raised against him 

 until now his breed is almost extinct. He was 

 well fitted to survive on the desert mesas and 

 the upland plains a fine type of swiftness and 

 endurance but Nature in her economy never 

 reckoned with the magazine rifle nor the greed 

 of the individual who calls himself a sports- 

 man. 



The mule-deer with his large ears, long muz- 



His nose 

 and ears. 



His 



swiftness. 



