A Trip on the Prairie 207 



as the small antelope are. The latter have a nurse in 

 the shape of a fat old ewe; and it is funny to see 

 her, when alarmed, running off at a waddling gait, 

 while her ungainly little foster-children skip round 

 and round her, cutting the most extraordinary an- 

 tics. There are a couple of very large dogs, mastiffs, 

 on the place, whose natural solemnity is completely 

 disconcerted by the importunities and fearlessness of 

 the little antelope fawns. Where one goes the other 

 two always follow, and so one of the mastiffs, while 

 solemnly blinking in the sun, will suddenly find him- 

 self charged at full speed by the three queer little 

 creatures, who will often fairly butt up against him. 

 The uneasy look of the dog, and his efforts to get 

 out of the way without compromising his dignity, 

 are really very comical. 



Young fawns seem to give out no scent, and 

 thus many of them escape from the numerous car- 

 nivorous beasts that are ever prowling about at 

 night over the prairie, and which, during the spring 

 months, are always fat from feeding on the bodies 

 of the innocents they have murdered. If discov- 

 ered by a fox or coyote during its first few days of 

 existence a little fawn has no chance of life, al- 

 though 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, 



