264 Life and Sport on the Pacific Slope 



In Southern California, in our own county, they 

 were once equally plentiful ; but the market hunters 

 almost exterminated them in the early '80's. Since 

 then the laws for their protection have been en- 

 forced, and to-day they are increasing.^ 



The sportsman will find it hard to see them at 

 first, for the grey of their coats melts at a short 

 distance into the grey green of the chaparral. The 

 best time to stalk them is at dawn in the dark of 

 the moon, when they are feeding. After a cold 

 night, you will always find them on the sunny 

 sides of the canons and gulches, and in the middle 

 of the day they will lie in the thick brush near 

 the crest of the hills. Some hunters wait for 

 them at the deer licks, but this has always seemed 

 to me a most tiresome and unsportsmanlike way of 

 killing them. They ought to be stalked, and stalk- 

 ing in Southern California exacts much patience 

 and skill. The breaking of a twig will drive them 

 out of a canon, and, once afoot, it is almost hope- 

 less to follow them. On the other hand, when they 

 are lying down in the chaparral, they will let you 

 walk close up to them, scurrying away like a 

 rabbit at the last moment. 



1 Mr. Baillie-Grohman says that the blacktail (C. Columhianus) 

 is the only deer found on the Pacific Slope. At the risk of differ- 

 ing with such a distinguished authority, I must submit that there 

 is in Southern California a blacktail which would seem to be a 

 cross between the Columbian and mule deer, not being so big as 

 the mule-deer of the Rockies, nor so small as the deer found in 

 Vancouver Island. Mr. Van Dyke (author of " The Still-hunter " ) 

 and Judge Cotton speak of this deer as a variety of Macrotis. The 

 mule-deer proper of Wyoming and Colorado is certainly not found 

 in California. 



