THE ANTELOPE 243 



beside a trout-brook, but the antelopes will be found, 

 always, well out from the woods.* If the hunters drive 

 these animals toward the woods, it is said they will 

 turn about and endeavor to escape by rushing past 

 their pursuers rather than enter the woods. 



The approach to an animal is best made when it is 

 feeding. When it stops feeding it is best, as we have 

 observed in deer-stalking, for the hunter to remain 

 absolutely still until the feeding begins again, when 

 he may move slowly forward. Antelopes do not read- 

 ily see an object at rest if it be in tone with the sur- 

 roundings. 



The canvas or corduroy clothes of the hunter har- 

 monize well with the grass, and so long as he is abso- 

 lutely motionless, there is little danger of his giving 

 alarm. The same thing is true of birds as well as large 

 game. In "Our Feathered Game" I referred to the 

 wild ducks coming to a pond and sitting on the water 

 quite close to me, when I was but partially concealed. 

 So long as I remained motionless the ducks swam 

 about seeking food, and tipped and preened and were 

 completely at their ease, but so soon as I made the 

 slightest motion with one hand, they all sprang into 

 the air and flew away in great alarm. 



The wolves and cougars are enemies of the antelope 

 and the eagle often gets the kids and has been known 

 to kill a full-grown animal, f 



* Contra — See statement of Roosevelt, iufra, p. 249. I have never seen 

 the antelopes in the woods. They have been so much persecuted in the 

 open, however, that 1 am not surprised to learn that sometimes they have 

 taken to the woods. 



\ I\ecreatio7i published the story of an eye-witness to the killing of a full- 

 grown antelope by an eagle. 



