OF A RANCHMAN 223 



wounding one, continually harry and dis- 

 turb the poor animals. In the more re- 

 mote and inaccessible districts the black-tail 

 will long hold its own, to be one of the ani- 

 mals whose successful pursuit will redound 

 most to the glory of the still-hunter ; but in 

 a very few years it will have ceased entirely 

 to be one of the common game animals of 

 the plains. 



Its great curiosity is one of the disadvan- 

 tages under which it labors in the fierce 

 struggle for existence, compared to the wfiite- 

 tail. The latter, when startled, does not often 

 * stop to look round ; but, as already said, the 

 former will generally do so after having 

 gone a few hundred feet. The first black- 

 tail I ever killed unfortunately killed, for 

 the body was not found until spoiled was 

 obtained owing solely to this peculiarity. I 

 had been riding up along the side of a brushy 

 coulie, when a fine buck started out some 

 thirty yards ahead. Although so close, my 

 first shot, a running one, was a miss ; when 

 a couple of hundred yards off, on the very 



