144 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 



buck is then constantly on the watch to protect his harem 

 from outsiders, and steal another doe if he can get a 

 chance. I have seen a comparatively young buck who 

 had appropriated a doe, hustle her hastily out of the 

 country as soon as he saw another antelope in the neigh- 

 borhood; while, on the other hand, a big buck, already 

 with a good herd of does, will do his best to appropriate 

 any other that comes in sight. The bucks fight fearlessly 

 but harmlessly among themselves, locking their horns 

 and then pushing as hard as they can. 



Although their horns are not very formidable weap- 

 ons, they are bold little creatures, and if given a chance 

 will stand at bay before either hound or coyote. A doe 

 will fight most gallantly for her fawn, and is an over- 

 match for a single coyote, but of course she can do but lit- 

 tle against a large wolf. The wolves are occasionally very 

 destructive to the herds. The cougar, however, which 

 is a much worse foe than the wolf to deer and mountain 

 sheep, can but rarely molest the prongbuck, owing to the 

 nature of the latter's haunts. Eagles, on occasion, take 

 the fawns, as they do those of deer. 



I have always been fond of the chase of the prong- 

 buck. While I lived on my ranch on the Little Mis- 

 souri it was, next to the mule-deer, the game which I 

 most often followed, and on the long wagon strips which 

 I occasionally took from my ranch to the Black Hills, 

 to the Big Horn Mountains, or into eastern Montana, 

 prongbuck venison was our usual fresh meat, save when 

 we could kill prairie-chickens and ducks with our rifles, 

 which was not always feasible. In my mind the prong- 



