The Black-Tail Deer 145 



and that there is usually much more time for aim- 

 ing. Moreover, one kind of sport can be followed 

 on horseback, while the other must be followed on 

 foot; and then the chase of the white-tail, in addi- 

 tion, is by far the more tedious and patience-trying. 

 And the black-tail are much the more easily scared 

 or driven out of a locality by persecution or by 

 the encroaching settlements. All these qualities 

 combine to make it less able to hold its own against 

 mankind than its smaller rival. It is the favorite 

 game of the skin hunters and meat hunters,^ and 

 has, in consequence, already disappeared from many 

 places, while in others its extermination is going on 

 at a frightfully rapid rate, owing to its being fol- 

 lowed in season and out of season without mercy. 

 Besides, the cattle are very fond of just the places 

 to which it most often resorts; and wherever cattle 

 go the cowboys ride about after them, with their 

 ready six-shooters at their hips. They blaze away 

 at any deer they see, of course, and in addition to 

 now and then killing or wounding one, continually 

 harry and disturb the poor animals. In the more 

 remote and inaccessible districts the black-tail will 

 long hold its own, to be one of the animals whose 

 successful pursuit will redound most to the glory 

 of the still-hunter; but in a very few years it will 

 have ceased entirely to be one of the common game 

 animals of the plains. 



Its great curiosity is one of the disadvantages 

 under which it labors in the fierce struggle for exist- 

 ence, compared to the white-tail. The latter, when 



G VOL. IV. 



