154 Hunting Trips of a Ranchman 



these they afford perfect protection unless a man 

 should happen to stumble on a snake while crawling 

 along on all fours. But moccasins are beyond all 

 comparison the best footgear for hunting. In very 

 cold weather a fur cap which can be pulled down 

 over the ears is a necessity; but at other times a 

 brimmed felt hat offers better protection against 

 both sun and rain. The clothes should be of some 

 neutral tint buckskin is on this account excellent 

 and very strong. 



The still-hunter should be well acquainted with, 

 at any rate, certain of the habits of his quarry. 

 There are seasons when the black-tail is found in 

 bands; such is apt to be the case when the rutting 

 time is over. At this period, too, the deer wander 

 far and wide, making what may almost be called a 

 migration ; and in rutting time the bucks follow the 

 does at speed for miles at a stretch. But except 

 at these seasons each individual black-tail has a 

 certain limited tract of country to which he confines 

 himself unless disturbed or driven away, not, of 

 course, keeping in the same spot all the time, but 

 working round among a particular set of ravines 

 and coulies, where the feed is good, and where 

 water can be obtained without going too far out 

 of the immediate neighborhood. 



Throughout the plains country the black-tail 

 lives in the broken ground, seldom coming down 

 to the alluvial bottoms or out on the open prairies 

 and plateaus. But he is found all through this 

 broken ground. Sometimes it is rolling in char- 



