THIRTY YEARS A HUNTER. 1$3 



and cannot be subdued by whipping or any other 

 means, but will plunge at their keeper upon every 

 opportunity. At three years old it is dangerous to 

 approach them at any time after the middle of Sep- 

 tember, when their antlers have attained their full 

 size, until they shed them in February. Their vi- 

 ciousness increases with their years, and unless kept 

 in a park they are very dangerous animals. 

 ; The color of the deer changes twice during the 

 year. They shed their hair the last of April, and in 

 May their color is a bright red. By the last ot 

 October they are covered with a short coat of a blue 

 color. The color of the young fawns is a light red- 

 dish brown, beautifully variegated with small white 

 spots. About the middle of October these spots* 

 disappear, and they are then bluish, like the old 

 ones- In November their hind quarters become 

 white in places. I have seen in my life, two white 

 deer. The first one I saw with a drove of other deer 

 eating moss in the Susquehannah river, where I was 

 fire-hunting. Three years afterward, I saw another, 

 while hunting for elk at night, fifteen miles above 

 the place where I had seen the first. I could have 

 killed both, but being such rare specimens, I let 

 them go. They are not a distinct species of deer, 

 but are merely deviations from the general color of 

 common deer. Every seventh year in April, they 

 move west in herds of from three to fifteen, generally 

 going about thirty miles from their usual haunts, 

 and remaining, if undisturbed until some time in 

 Julv. If they are molested, they return at once to 



