244 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 



best to sacrifice her by diverting the attention of the pur- 

 suer to her and away from him. 



By the end of the rut the old bucks are often ex- 

 hausted, their sides are thin, their necks swollen; though 

 they are never as gaunt as wapiti bulls at this time. They 

 then rest as much as possible, feeding all the time to put 

 on fat before winter arrives, and rapidly attaining a very 

 high condition. 



Except in dire need no one would kill a deer after 

 the hard weather of winter begins or before the antlers 

 of the buck are full-grown and the fawns are out of the 

 spotted coat. Even in the old days we, who lived in the 

 ranch country, always tried to avoid killing deer in the 

 spring or early summer, though we often shot buck ante- 

 lope at those times. The close season for deer varies in 

 different States, and now there is generally a limit set to 

 the number any one hunter can kill ; for the old days of 

 wasteful plenty are gone forever. 



To my mind there is a peculiar fascination in hunt- 

 ing the mule-deer. By the time the hunting season has 

 arrived the buck is no longer the slinking beast of the 

 thicket, but a bold and yet wary dweller in the up- 

 lands. Frequently he can be found clear of all cover, 

 often at midday, and his habits at this season are, from 

 the hunter's standpoint, rather more like those of the 

 wapiti than of the whitetail ; but each band, though con- 

 tinually shifting its exact position, stays permanently 

 in the same tract of country, whereas wapiti are apt to 

 wander. 



In the old days, when mule-deer were plentiful in 



