138 The Black-Tail Deer. 



white-tail deer, the two prime requisites are stealth and 

 patience. If the quarry is a big-horn, a man needs 

 especially to be sound in wind and limbs, and to be 

 both hardy and resolute. Skill in the use of the long- 

 range rifle counts for more in antelope hunting than in 

 any other form of sport ; and it is in this kind of hunt- 

 ing alone that good marksmanship is more important 

 than any thing else. With dangerous game, cool and 

 steady nerves are of the first consequence ; all else 

 comes after. Then, again, in the use of the rifle, the 

 kind of skill not merely the degree of skill required 

 to hunt different animals may vary greatly. In shooting 

 white-tail, it is especially necessary to be a good snap 

 shot at running game ; when the distance is close, quick- 

 ness is an essential. But at antelope there is plenty of 

 time, and what is necessary is ability to judge distance, 

 and capacity to hit a small stationary object at long 

 range. 



The different degrees of estimation in which the chase 

 of the various kinds of plains game is held depend less 

 upon the difficulty of capture than upon the nature of the 

 qualities in the hunter which each particular form of 

 hunting calls into play. A man who is hardy, resolute, 

 and a good shot, has come nearer to realizing the ideal of 

 a bold and free hunter than is the case with one who is 

 merely stealthy and patient ; and so, though to kill a 

 white-tail is rather more difficult than to kill a black-tail, 

 yet the chase of the latter is certainly the nobler form of 

 sport, for it calls into play, and either develops or im- 

 plies the presence of, much more manly qualities than 



