The Black-Tail Deer 159 



the evergreen needles with which the ground is 

 covered enable a man to walk noiselessly, and, by 

 stooping or going on all fours, he can keep under 

 the branches. But it is at all times hard and un 

 satisfactory work to find and successfully still-hunt 

 a deer that is enjoying its day rest. Generally, the 

 only result is to find the warm, fresh bed from 

 which the deer has just sneaked off, the blades of 

 grass still slowly rising, after the hasty departure 

 of the weight that has flattened them down; or 

 else, if in dense cover, the hunter suddenly hears 

 a scramble, a couple of crashing bounds through 

 the twigs and dead limbs, and gets a momentary 

 glimpse of a dark outline vanishing into the thicket 

 as the sole reward of his labor. Almost the only 

 way to successfully still-hunt a deer in the middle 

 of the day, is to find its trail and follow it up to 

 the resting-places, and such a feat needs an expert 

 tracker and a noiseless and most skilful stalker. 



The black-tail prefers to live in the neighborhood 

 of water, where he can get it every twenty-four 

 hours; but he is perfectly willing to drink only 

 every other day, if, as is often the case, he happens 

 to be in a very dry locality. Nor does he stay long 

 in the water or near it, like the white-tail, but 

 moves off as soon as he is no longer thirsty. On 

 moonlight nights he feeds a good deal of the time, 

 and before dawn he is always on foot for his break 

 fast ; the hours around daybreak are those in which 

 most of his grazing is done. By the time the sun 

 has been up an hour he is on his way homeward, 



