ii8 THE DEER FAMILY 



blue, the gray being of a colder tone late in the season 

 than earlier. This deer is often referred to as the 

 white-tail, a name given it from its flag-like white tail, 

 which it carries aloft like a flag of truce when running 

 away from an enemy. The Virginia deer may be said 

 to be our staple deer. It is often referred to as the 

 common deer or the common red deer. 



I have read somewhere recently that the deer will 

 sink when in the red coat, and that it floats when " in 

 the blue," and that for that reason the Adirondack 

 guides (when it was overtaken with a canoe, in the 

 summer time) held on to its tail, while the sports- 

 man (?) shot it. I had always supposed they held on 

 to the tail to steady the game or give it a motion uni- 

 form with the canoe, so that the sportsman (?) might 

 the more readily hit it. The whole performance con- 

 sisted of driving the timid little creature with hounds 

 to a lake, where the shooter (I am inclined to drop the 

 word sportsman), with his guide in a canoe, awaited its 

 coming. It was no difficult matter to overtake it, 

 swimming in the lake, and when the guide dropped 

 his paddle and had a good hold on the tail, the gunner 

 proceeded to shoot and shoot until at last he scored ; 

 the murder was done, and the gunner had a trophy to 

 put on his wall. He then was fully equipped to talk 

 about the hardships of the chase, the astuteness of the 

 deer, the tremendous difficulties to be overcome in 

 getting one, and the corresponding value of the head. 



As I said recently in the Century* there has been a 

 revolution in American field-sports within the last few 

 years. It is fortunate that this method of taking deer, 



*Field Sports of To-day, the Century Magazine, October, 1903. 



