270 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 



hunter, and next to the bison are more quickly exter- 

 minated than any other kind of game. Only the fact that 

 they possessed a far wider range of habitat than either 

 the mule-deer, the prongbuck, or the moose, has enabled 

 them still to exist. Their gregariousness is also against 

 them. Even after the rut the herds continue together 

 until in midspring the bulls shed their antlers for they 

 keep their antlers at least two months longer than deer. 

 During the fall, winter, and early spring wapiti are rov- 

 ing, restless creatures. Their habit of migration varies 

 with locality, as among mule-deer. Along the little Mis- 

 souri, as in the plains country generally, there was no 

 well-defined migration. Up to the early eighties, when 

 wapiti were still plentiful, the bands wandered far and 

 wide, but fitfully and irregularly, wholly without regard 

 to the season, save that they were stationary from May 

 to August. After 1883 there were but a few individuals 

 left, although as late as 1886 I once came across a herd 

 of nine. These surviving individuals had learned cau- 

 tion. The bulls only called by night, and not very 

 frequently then, and they spent the entire year in the 

 roughest and most out-of-the-way places, having the same 

 range both winter and summer. They selected tracts 

 where the ground was very broken and there was much 

 shrubbery and patches of small trees. This tree and 

 bush growth gave them both shelter and food; for they 

 are particularly fond of browsing on the leaves and ten- 

 der twig ends, though they also eat weeds and grass. 



Wherever wapiti dwell among the mountains they 

 make regular seasonal migrations. In northwestern 



