THE VIRGINIA DEER 137 



In Massachusetts and Rhode Island the laws con- 

 tain exceptions in favor of the owner, who is permit- 

 ted to kill " his own tame deer kept on his own 

 grounds." This would seem to require that the game 

 on the preserves be not wild. In Iowa the exception 

 is in favor of the owner, who is permitted to kill deer 

 on his own ground. 



The above references to the laws will give the reader 

 an idea of the tendency of the legislation in different 

 parts of the country. When the deer are protected at 

 all times or for a period of years, the legislation plainly 

 indicates that the animals were threatened with exter- 

 mination. It is fortunate that the deer soon recover 

 under such laws, and a friend who is familiar with 

 New England conditions informs me that the deer 

 really are becoming a nuisance in some localities. 



In the North generally all methods of capture, ex- 

 cepting still-hunting, have been prohibited. In the 

 South it is the fashion to use hounds, and horses, 

 horns, and darkies besides, as already observed. The 

 weapon, too, is often the double gun loaded with buck- 

 shot, with which the sportsman sometimes makes a 

 double. The reader will find a clever word-picture 

 of the Mississippi bear-country in the chapter on the 

 black bear. The deer in that State are found on the 

 same ground with the bear. The riding about after 

 the hounds on Southern plantations is often difficult; 

 the timber is heavy and full of briars, vines, and many 

 undergrowths, and often swampy, and the canebrakcs 

 are in places wellnigh impenetrable. It is a pictu- 

 resque sight, however, to see a lot of well-mounted 

 sportsmen out with iiounds and horns and their ser- 



