240 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 



means infrequent to see both the whitetail and the mule- 

 deer close together, and when, under such circumstances, 

 they were alarmed, one got a clear idea of the extraor- 

 dinary gait which is the mule-deer's most striking char- 

 acteristic. It trots well, gallops if hard pressed, and is 

 a good climber, though much inferior to the mountain 

 sheep. But its normal gait consists of a series of stiff- 

 legged bounds, all four feet leaving and striking the 

 ground at the same time. This gait differs more from 

 the gait of bighorn, prongbuck, whitetail, and wapiti 

 than the gaits of these latter animals differ among them- 

 selves. The wapiti, for instance, rarely gallops, but when 

 he does, it is a gallop of the ordinary type. The prong- 

 buck runs with a singularly even gait; whereas the white- 

 tail makes great bounds, some much higher than others. 

 But fundamentally in all cases the action is the same, 

 and has no resemblance to the stiff-legged buck jumping 

 which is the ordinary means of progression of the mule- 

 deer. These jumps carry it not only on the level, but 

 up and down hill at a great speed. It is said to be a tire- 

 some gait for the animal, if hunted for any length of 

 time on the level; but of this I cannot speak with full 

 knowledge. 



Compared to the wapiti, the mule-deer, like our other 

 small deer, is a very silent animal. For a long time I 

 believed it uttered no sound beyond the snort of alarm 

 and the rare bleat of the doe to her fawn ; but one after- 

 noon I heard two bucks grunting or barking at one an- 

 other in a ravine back of the ranch-house, and crept up 

 and shot them. I was still uncertain whether this was 



