CHAPTER V 

 THE BLACK-TAIL DEER 



FAR different from the low-scudding, 

 brush-loving white-tail, is the black- 

 tail deer, the deer of the ravines and the 

 rocky uplands. In general shape and form, 

 both are much alike; but the black-tail is 

 the larger of the two, with heavier antlers, 

 of which the prongs start from one another, 

 as if each of the tines of a two-pronged 

 pitchfork had bifurcated ; and in some cases 

 it looks as if the process had been again re- 

 peated. The tail, instead of being broad 

 and bushy as a squirrel's, spreading from 

 the base, and pure white to the tip, is round 

 and close haired, witH the end black, though 

 the rest is white. If an ordinary deer is 

 running, its flaunting flag is almost its 

 most conspicuous part; but no one would 

 notice the tail of a black-tail deer. 



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