158 RATTLESNAKE KILLED BY A DEER. 



much contused that it was almost unable to crawl. 

 After despatching the reptile, which was so exhausted 

 that it could not raise its head, I found that it had 

 suffered severely, the scales being in several places 

 torn off its body, and its vertebrae near the vent 

 broken. 



I have heard backwoodsmen say that deer would 

 kill snakes, but before my experience of to-day I did 

 not believe it, for their mode of procedure I was 

 unacquainted with. The ocular demonstration, how- 

 ever, I had just enjoyed, prevented my being further 

 sceptical on this point. The sharpness of a deer's 

 hoof, and the precision with which it uses it, render 

 its foot a more dangerous weapon even than its 

 horns. 



Soon after I joined my companion, who was 

 stretched near the fire, which he had already lit for 

 cooking our evening meal. It was a dry clear night, 

 a most welcome change from the previously bad 

 weather. The owls, however, never ceased hooting 

 an indication that more wet was in store. 



The country through which we passed this day 

 improved in appearance, for vegetation was much 

 more plentiful. Deer also were becoming numerous, 

 but we had lost sight of buffalo. The old man said 

 that, with luck, we should see the Missouri hi 

 three days more. I sincerely hoped so, as I was 

 beginning to believe my search for it rather a wild- 

 goose chase. 



The first Bobolink (JEmberiza oryzivora) that I 



