THE AMERICAN DEEK. 225 



The deer lias usually but one, never more than two 

 fawns at a birth. In the southern parts of the State of 

 New York these are for the most part dropped in May 

 and June, but further north, somewhat earlier in the 

 year. During the rutting season the males are bold and 

 extremely pugnacious among themselves, although not 

 like the Red Deer capable of attacking men without 

 provocation. The cry of the deer when alarmed is a 

 quick, tremulous whistling sound, accompanied by a 

 stamp of the foot ; when mortally w r ounded they will at 

 times utter a faint bleat like that of a young calf. 



In its habits the American Deer is, for the most part, 

 except in the vast prairies of the West, a woodland 

 haunter, as, according to Catallus, was the deer of Greece 

 and Asia Minor, which, in his comprehensive and 

 picturesque compound he describes as sylvicultrix, the 

 haunter of the woodlands, and in this respect it differs 

 from the Ked Deer of Great Britain, which prefers the 

 difficult and craggy mountain-tops, or the far-extended 

 downs covered with waving heather to the dark pine 

 woods of the Scottish Highlands, or the beautiful oak 

 coppices of Devonshire. 



By law the killing of the American Deer has gene- 

 rally been restricted in most States to the months between 

 August and December, both inclusive, but so rapid is 

 the progress of annihilation going on with these beauti- 

 ful animals that in some counties of 'New York the only 

 months during which it is lawful to take them, are Sep- 

 10* 



