THE MULE-DEER 243 



will have a better chance of adding the second doe to his 

 harem, or of robbing another buck of the doe or does 

 which he has accumulated. I have often seen merely 

 one doe and one buck together, and I have often seen a 

 single doe which for several days was accompanied by 

 several bucks, one keeping off the others. But generally 

 the biggest bucks collect each for himself several does, 

 yearlings also being allowed in the band. The exact 

 amount of companionship with the does allowed these 

 young bucks depends somewhat upon the temper of the 

 master buck. In books by imperfectly informed writers 

 we often see allusions to the buck as protecting the 

 doe, or even taking care of the fawn. Charles Dudley 

 Warner, for instance, in describing with great skill and 

 pathos an imaginary deer hunt, after portraying the death 

 of the doe, portrays the young fawn as following the buck 

 when the latter comes back to it in the evening. 1 As a 

 matter of fact, while the fawn is so young as to be wholly 

 dependent upon the doe, the buck never comes near 

 either. Moreover, during the period when the buck and 

 the doe are together, the buck's attitude is merely that of 

 a brutal, greedy, and selfish tyrant. He will unhesitat- 

 ingly rob the doe of any choice bit of food, and though 

 he will fight to keep her if another buck approaches, the 

 moment that a dangerous foe appears his one thought is 

 for his own preservation. He will not only desert the 

 doe, but if he is an old and cunning buck, he will try his 



1 While the situation thus described was an impossible one, the purpose of 

 Mr. Warner's article was excellent, it being intended as a protest against hunt- 

 ing deer while the fawns are young, and against killing them in the water. 



