Virginia Deer 
learn from their appearance just how long since the deer that 
made them preceded you; when in wet places the water has 
not yet settled in the foot-prints, it is time to look sharply ahead 
among the trees for a glimpse of your quarry. Deer usually wander 
about feeding all the morning, following a more or less direct 
course according to the lay of the land. Along the foot of a ridge by 
the edge of a swamp is a favourite feeding ground of theirs, and 
they like to trace the windings of a trout brook between low hills. 
In the middle of the day they lie down to rest in the lee of 
a thick clump of evergreen, where they can watch their tracks for 
any enemy that may be following them. Before lying down they 
make a practice of going back a little distance on their tracks 
to make sure that they are not followed. So when you have 
been tracking them all the morning and toward noon perceive 
three tracks ahead of you in place of one, you may feel pretty 
certain the deer you are after is resting in some thick clump not 
many rods ahead. But unless there is snow on the ground to 
enable you to see the tracks a long way in front of you, you 
will hardly notice the back tracks before you have come so close 
as to alarm your game and send it flying off among the trees, 
showing you just the white flash of his tail as he disappears. 
If not badly frightened, however, he will probably not run very 
far before stopping to look back at you, choosing, if possible, a 
thickly wooded knoll or a hummock at the edge of the swamp 
and here you may perhaps get a shot at him if you will make 
a slight detour and approach him from one side; to follow him 
directly would be useless, for he is earnestly watching his back 
tracks, and is certain to see you long before you can possibly see him. 
Varieties of the Virginia Deer 
One or other form of Virginia or white-tailed deer is found 
in nearly every part of the United Sates. They are all geographic 
variations of the same stock and they exhibit differences in direct pro- 
portion to the effect produced by the peculiar climate and surround- 
ings in which they live. Whether they shade gradually into one 
another as their ranges approach, or whether differentiation has gone 
further and they are to be regarded as different ‘‘ species " are ques- 
tions that have not yet been definitely settled in many cases. Without 
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