The Black-Tail Deer 151 



manly sport furnished by the chase of each, the 

 white-tail should stand at the bottom of the list, and 

 the elk and black-tail abreast of the antelope. 



Other things being equal, the length of an ani- 

 mal's stay in the land, when the arch foe of all lower 

 forms of animal life has made his appearance there- 

 in, depends upon the difficulty with which he is 

 hunted and slain. But other influences have to be 

 taken into account. The big-horn is shy and retir- 

 ing; very few, compared tO'the whole number, will 

 be killed ; and yet the others vanish completely. Ap- 

 parently they will not remain where they are hunted 

 and disturbed. With antelope and white-tail this 

 does not hold; they will cling to a place far more 

 tenaciously, even if often harassed. The former 

 being the more conspicuous, and living in such open 

 ground, is apt to be more persecuted; while the 

 white-tail, longer than any other animal, keeps its 

 place in the land in spite of the swinish game butch- 

 ers, who hunt for hides and not for sport or actual 

 food, and who murder the gravid doe and the spot- 

 ted fawn with as little hesitation as they would kill 

 a buck of ten points. No one who is not himself a 

 sportsman and lover of nature can realize the in- 

 tense indignation with which a true hunter sees 

 these butchers at their brutal work of slaughtering 

 the game, in season and out, for the sake of the few 

 dollars they are too lazy to earn in any other and 

 more honest way. 



All game animals rely upon eyes, ears, and nose 

 to warn them of the approach of danger; but 



