THE WAPITI 261 



power, to prevent the extermination of this stately and 

 beautiful animal, the lordliest of the deer kind in the 

 entire world. 



The wapiti, like the bison, and even more than the 

 whitetail deer, can thrive in widely varying surround- 

 ings. It is at home among the high mountains, in the 

 deep forests, and on the treeless, level plains. It is rather 

 omnivorous in its tastes, browsing and grazing on all 

 kinds of trees, shrubs and grasses. These traits, and its 

 hardihood, make it comparatively easy to perpetuate in 

 big parks and forest preserves in a semi-wild condition; 

 and it has thriven in such preserves and parks in many 

 of the Eastern States. As it does not, by preference, dwell 

 in such tangled forests as are the delight of the moose 

 and the whitetail deer, it vanishes much quicker than 

 either when settlers appear in the land. In the mountains 

 and foothills its habitat is much the same as that of the 

 mule-deer, the two animals being often found in the im- 

 mediate neighborhood of each other. In such places the 

 superior size and value of the wapiti put it at a disad- 

 vantage in the keen struggle for life, and when the rifle- 

 bearing hunter appears upon the scene, it is killed out 

 long before its smaller kinsman. 



Moreover, the wapiti is undoubtedly subject to queer 

 freaks of panic stupidity, or what seems like a mixture 

 of tameness and of puzzled terror. At these times a herd 

 will remain almost motionless, the individuals walking 

 undecidedly to and fro, and neither flinching nor giving 

 any other sign even when hit with a bullet. In the old 

 days it was not uncommon for a professional hunter to 



