BLACK-TAILED DEER. 183 



and is exceedingly tenacious of life. One morning, after 

 a long and trying stalk, I had approached sufficiently 

 near to three splendid bucks for a shot, but was so 

 situated that I could not see them from where I stood, 

 nor change my position to where I could see them, without 

 danger of giving them the wind. After some hesitation 

 and careful study of the ground, I decided to risk the 

 wind. I had not progressed fifty paces, when I saw 

 all three dash into a small clump of cedars in full view 

 and at short range. This clump was separated from 

 a dense and contiguous thicket of small pines by a 

 little glade of less than ten feet in width. I sat down 

 on the ground and pointed my rifle at this giade. I was 

 hardly ready when a buck sprung into the glade, paused 

 scarcely an instant, and plunged into the thicket. I c drew 

 a bead ' on the spot where he had been, and a moment 

 after another sprung directly in front of my rifle, and as he 

 turned to gain the thicket I fired. He went off. Slip- 

 ping in another cartridge, I looked up to see the head 

 of the last deer, as he peeped- through the branches to 

 see the cause of the unusual noise. A bullet through 

 his head dropped him ' in his tracks.' After securing 

 him I went into the glade and found a trail of blood, 

 showing that the second deer had been hit. I followed 

 this trail most carefully, through an unusually dark, dense, 

 and tangled thicket, for more than 400 yards, and was 

 finally rewarded by finding my buck dead. My bullet 

 had struck him, as he turned, just on the rearmost rib, 

 very near the spine, and ranged forward. Five ribs 

 had been cut as completely as though the blow had 

 been struck with a heavy axe. The bullet had then 

 passed inwards through the lungs, and came out well 

 up in the chest. Scarcely any other animal but would 

 have fallen at once ; yet ' this buck ran for a quarter of 

 a mile through a thicket, every step of my progress 

 through which was attended with unusual exertion. 



The capacity of the black-tail for scrambling over 



