198 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 



of New York City, in the summer of 1899, spent several 

 weeks on a fishing trip through northern Maine. He 

 kept count of the moose and deer he saw, and came 

 across no less than thirty-five of the former and over five 

 hundred and sixty of the latter. In the most lonely parts 

 of the forest deer were found by the score, feeding in 

 broad daylight on the edges of the ponds. Deer are still 

 plentiful in many parts of the Alleghany Mountains, 

 from Pennsylvania southward, and also in the swamps 

 and canebrakes of the South Atlantic and Gulf States. 

 Where the differences in habitat and climate are so 

 great there are many changes of habits, and some of them 

 of a noteworthy kind. Mr. John A. Mcllhenny, of 

 Avery's Island, Louisiana, formerly a lieutenant in my 

 regiment, lives in what is still a fine game country. His 

 plantation is in the delta of the Mississippi, among the 

 vast marshes, north of which lie the wooded swamps. 

 Both the marshes and the swamps were formerly literally 

 thronged with whitetail deer, and the animals are still 

 plentiful in them. Mr. Mcllhenny has done much deer- 

 hunting, always using hounds. He informs me that the 

 breeding times are unexpectedly different from those of 

 the northern deer. In the North, in different localities, 

 the rut takes place in October or November, and the 

 fawns are dropped in May or June. In the Louisiana 

 marshes around Avery's Island the rut begins early in 

 July and the fawns are dropped in February. In the 

 swamps immediately north of these marshes the dates are 

 fully a month later. The marshes are covered with tall 

 reeds and grass and broken by bayous, while there are 



