190 A Trip on the Prairie. 



Young fawns seem to give out no scent, and thus many 

 of them escape from the numerous carnivorous beasts that 

 are ever prowling about at night over the prairie, and 

 which, during the spring months, are always fat from feed- 

 ing on the bodies of the innocents they have murdered. 

 If discovered by a fox or coyote during its first few days 

 of existence a little fawn has no chance of life, although 

 the mother, if present, will fight desperately for it ; but 

 after it has acquired the use of its legs it has no more to 

 fear than have any of the older ones. 



Sometimes the fawns fall victims to the great Golden 

 Eagle. This grand bird, the War Eagle of the Sioux, 

 is not very common in the Bad Lands, but is sometimes 

 still seen with us ; and, as everywhere else, its mere 

 presence adds a certain grandeur to its lonely haunts. 

 Two or three years ago a nest was found by one of my 

 men on the face of an almost inaccessible cliff, and a 

 young bird was taken out from it and reared in a roughly 

 extemporized cage. Wherever the eagle exists it holds 

 undisputed sway over every thing whose size does not 

 protect it from the great bird's beak and talons ; not only 

 does it feed on hares, grouse, and ducks, but it will also 

 attack the young fawns of the deer and antelope. Still, 

 the eagle is but an occasional foe, and aside from man, the 

 only formidable enemies the antelope has to fear are the 

 wolves and coyotes. These are very destructive to the 

 young, and are always lounging about the band to pick up 

 any wounded straggler ; in winter, when the ground is 

 slippery and the antelope numbed and weak, they will 

 often commit great havoc even among those that are 

 grown up. 



