184 WATCHED BY WILD ANIMALS 



This I think is rarely more than six or eight 

 miles in diameter. If pursued by man, dogs, 

 or wolves it is likely to run in great circles, 

 keeping within the bounds of home territory. 

 Most antelope are not migratory, but in a few 

 localities the flocks make a short migration. 

 For winter they may travel to a more broken 

 locality, one that gives some shelter from the 

 wind and contains spaces off which the wind 

 sweeps the snow. 



The antelope makes long leaps but not high 

 jumps. I watched an antelope that had been 

 separated from the flock hurrying to rejoin it. 

 In its way was a line of willows along the dry, 

 shallow water channel. This willow stretch 

 was not wide nor high. A deer would have 

 leaped it without the slightest hesitation. The 

 antelope went far round and jumped wide 

 gullies, but made no attempt to leap this one low 

 line of willows. Being a plains animal, knowing 

 but little of cliffs and timber, it has not learned 

 high jumping. 



For ages the antelope was thickly scattered 

 over the Great Plains and the small parks of the 

 West, Northwest, and Southwest. Fifty years 

 ago they were numbered by millions. The present 

 antelope population numbers not more than 

 15,000. Howard Eaton tells me that years ago 

 he sometimes saw several thousand in a single 



