DEER. 



63 



When a deer is stalked 

 and sees something of 

 which he is afraid he gen- 

 erally utters a snort of 

 alarm, and then away he 

 goes, his white tail held 

 straight up in the air, 

 showing clearly as he 

 bounds high over the 

 bushes. If you have fired 



at him and he goes off with his tail down you may be sure he is 

 badly wounded. I have shot at deer at long range and seen them 

 go away without raising their tails, but could find no signs of blood 

 along the trail ; yet upon following it for a short distance the deer 

 would be found quite dead. Oftentimes a deer will bleed badly from 

 a comparatively slight wound, and again be seriously wounded 



and bleed externally but 

 little. 



The Florida Deer is 

 smaller and varies slightly 

 in color from the true C. 

 V i r g i n t anus. A full- 

 grown buck will often not 

 weigh over no pounds, 

 although I have killed 

 them considerably larger, 

 and probably they occa- 

 sionally ( though rarely) 

 approach in size their 

 Northern relation. In 

 Florida as elsewhere the 

 bucks drop their antlers 

 every year, usually about 

 February. The rutting 

 season occurs in Septem- 



