THE WHITETAIL DEER 215 



hood, and indeed from all the island and from New York. 

 On such a day it is almost impossible to get any work 

 done; for the sport is most democratic, and is shared by 

 everybody. The hunters choose their position before 

 dawn, lying in lines wherever deer are likely to pass, 

 while the hounds are turned into every patch of thick 

 cover. A most lively day follows, the fusillade being 

 terrific ; some men are invariably shot, and a goodly num- 

 ber of deer are killed, mostly by wily old hunters who 

 kill ducks and quail for a living in the fall. 



When the horse is used together with the hounds the 

 conditions are changed. To ride a horse over rough 

 country after game always implies hardihood and good 

 horsemanship, and therefore makes the sport a worthy 

 one. In very open country in such country, for instance, 

 as the whitetail formerly frequented both in Texas and 

 the Indian Territory the horseman could ride at the 

 tail of the pack until the deer was fairly run down. But 

 nowadays I know of no place where this is possible, for 

 the whitetail's haunts are such as to make it impracti- 

 cable for any rider to keep directly behind the hounds. 

 What he must do is to try to cut the game off by riding 

 from point to point. He then leaps off the horse and 

 watches his chance for a shot. This is the way in which 

 Mr. Mcllhenny has done most of his deer-hunting, in 

 the neighborhood of his Louisiana plantation. 



Around my ranch I very rarely tried to still-hunt 

 whitetail, because it was always easier to get mule-deer 

 or prongbuck, if I had time to go off for an all-day's 

 hunt. Occasionally, however, we would have at the 



