HUNTING IN CATTLE COUNTRY 143 



Hornaday told me that he was having great difficulty, 

 exactly as with the mule-deer, in acclimatizing the ante- 

 lope, especially as the food was so different from what 

 they were accustomed to in their native haunts. 



The wild fawns are able to run well a few days after 

 they are born. They then accompany the mother every- 

 where. Sometimes she joins a band of others; more often 

 she stays alone with her fawn, and perhaps one of the 

 young of the previous year, until the rut begins. Of all 

 game the prongbuck seems to me the most excitable dur- 

 ing the rut. The males run the does much as do the 

 bucks of the mule and whitetail deer. If there are no 

 does present, I have sometimes watched a buck run to 

 and fro by himself. The first time I saw this I was 

 greatly interested, and could form no idea of what the 

 buck was doing. He was by a creek bed in a slight de- 

 pression or shallow valley, and was grazing uneasily. 

 After a little while he suddenly started and ran just as 

 hard as he could, off in a straight direction, nearly away 

 from me. I thought that somehow or other he had dis- 

 covered my presence; but he suddenly wheeled and came 

 back to the original place, still running at his utmost 

 speed. Then he halted, moved about with the white 

 hairs on his rump outspread, and again dashed off at full 

 speed, halted, wheeled, and came back. Two or three 

 times he did this, and let me get very close to him be- 

 fore he discovered me. I was too much interested in 

 what he was doing to desire to shoot him. 



In September, sometimes not earlier than October, 

 the big bucks begin to gather the does into harems. Each 



