RED DEER, OR WHITE-TAILED DEER. 187 



antelope, the most prolific of large game animals ; and, 

 while comparatively few have enjoyed the pleasure of 

 bringing him to bay, there are not many persons in all 

 the length and breadth of the country who have not at 

 some time enjoyed the pleasure of bringing him to table. 



While always the same animal in general appearance, 

 red deer vary in size and habits in so remarkable a 

 degree that it is not to be wondered at that plainsmen 

 divide them into several groups or branches of the same 

 family. Their habits are always adapted to their safety 

 and preservation in the particular locality of which they 

 are denizens. 



On almost all plain streams that are fringed with 

 cotton-wood the red deer is found, a very independent 

 animal, feeding by day or night as it suits him, going out 

 on the plain as fearlessly though not so far as an antelope, 

 and living a twofold life now a prairie animal, now an 

 inhabitant of the jungle. When danger threatens him 

 on the prairie, he flies to the cover of his cotton-wood 

 thickets. Should they be invaded, he seeks the solitude 

 and safety of the high plains. The sand hills, which in 

 some places border the great rivers, harbour numbers of 

 red deer ; and, but that the soft and yielding sand renders 

 stalking difficult arid most tiresome, the results of hunting 

 in these localities are generally most satisfactory. 



The willow-covered islands of the Platte and Arkansas 

 are favourite homes for the red deer ; and here he 

 becomes a rabbit in his habits, feeding only at night and 

 remaining crouched in his lair by day. Here he loses 

 his freedom and elasticity of movement. When dis- 

 turbed, instead of going off with high springy bounds, as 

 is his wont in other places, he steals away, ears back and 

 tail down, to crouch again in the grass as soon as he is 

 out of immediate danger. The islands below the junc- 

 tion of the two Plattes were, in the winter of 1867-8, 

 plentifully supplied with these animals; yet the oldest and 

 best hunters, whether white or Indian, were unable to 



