AMERICAN BIG GAME 279 



south into Texas and Mexico. It was not only found in the 

 large forests, but was also found in the seams of timber 

 which border the streams and surround the lakes in the 

 prairie states. It is still not rare in the sparsely settled re- 

 gions of the Alleghanies, the New England States, and in 

 the woods of northern Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. 

 Of all our large game it holds out longest against the ad- 

 vance of civilization, and if it is properly protected and city 

 sportsmen learn to control their hunting passion and shoot 

 only one or two in a season instead of killing them by the 

 wagonload, there will be plenty of deer for a long time to 

 come ; if not, then the Bed Deer will soon follow the 

 Moose and the Elk into almost inaccessible regions, and 

 finally by the brutality and stupidity of enlightened Ameri- 

 can citizens, the sad fate of the Bison will overtake it. But 

 if the boys and young men now in our schools and colleges 

 will develop as much common sense as the writer sincerely 

 hopes and believes they will do, then this can never happen. 

 Monarcliial Europe has preserved much of her big game by 

 severe and often cruel laws; republican America ought to be 

 able to do more by the intelligence of her citizens. 



Description. A full-grown Virginia buck is about as 

 large as a yearling calf, but you must not forget that its 

 head is thinner and its muzzle much more pointed ; that its 

 legs are longer and only about as thick as those of a large 

 sheep. The fawns are at first bright reddish-brown and 

 spotted with longitudinal rows of white, but after a few 

 months the spots disappear. Then the general color of 

 bucks and does is chestnut-red in summer, changing to 

 grayish in winter. The chin, throat, abdomen, and under 

 side of the tail are white. Their color blends so well with 

 the brown of dead ferns, pine needles, and other foliage that 

 it is almost impossible to discover them at the distance of a 

 hundred yards, unless they move or are in the open. Their 



