CHAPTER III. 



THE WHITETAIL DEER ; AND THE BLACKTAIL OF 

 THE COLUMBIA. 



THE whitetail deer is much the commonest game 

 animal of the United States, being still found, 

 though generally in greatly diminished numbers 

 throughout most of the Union. It is a shrewd, wary, 

 knowing beast ; but it owes its prolonged stay in the 

 land chiefly to the fact that it is an inveterate skulker, 

 and fond of the thickest cover. Accordingly it usually 

 has to be killed by stealth and stratagem, and not by fair, 

 manly hunting ; being quite easily slain in any one of half 

 a dozen unsportsmanlike ways. In consequence I care 

 less for its chase than for the chase of any other kind of 

 American big game. Yet in the few places where it dwells 

 in open, hilly forests and can be killed by still-hunting as 

 if it were a blacktail ; or better still, where the nature of 

 the ground is such that it can be run down in fair chase 

 on horseback, either with greyhounds, or with a pack of 

 trackhounds, it yields splendid sport. 



Killing a deer from a boat while the poor animal is 

 swimming in the water, or on snow-shoes as it flounders 



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