THE WHITETAIL DEER 203 



if, in the effort to retreat, the beaten buck gets caught, 

 he may be killed. Owing to the character of the antlers, 

 whitetail bucks are peculiarly apt to get them interlocked 

 in such a fight, and if the efforts of the two beasts fail to 

 disentangle them, both ultimately perish by starvation. 

 I have several times come across a pair of skulls with 

 interlocked antlers. The same thing occurs, though far 

 less frequently, to the mule-deer and even the wapiti. 



The whitetail is the most beautiful and graceful of 

 all our game animals when in motion. I have never been 

 able to agree with Judge Caton that the mule-deer is 

 clumsy and awkward in his gait. I suppose all such terms 

 are relative. Compared to the moose or caribou the 

 mule-deer is light and quick in his movements, and to 

 me there is something very attractive in the poise and 

 power with which one of the great bucks bounds off, all 

 four legs striking the earth together and shooting the 

 body upward and forward as if they were steel springs. 

 But there can be no question as to the infinitely superior 

 grace and beauty of the whitetail when he either trots 

 or runs. The mule-deer and blacktail bound, as already 

 described. The prongbuck gallops with an even gait, 

 and so does the bighorn, when it happens to be caught 

 on a flat; but the whitetail moves with an indescribable 

 spring and buoyancy. If surprised close up, and much 

 terrified, it simply runs away as hard as it can, at a gait 

 not materially different from that of any other game 

 animal under like circumstances, while its head is thrust 

 forward and held down, and the tail is raised perpendic- 

 ularly. But normally its mode of progression, whether 



