Hunting the Prong-Buck. 95 



and careful stalking ; but if he is travelling, and is there- 

 fore cramped for time, he must take his chances, even_at 

 the cost of burning a good deal of powder. 



I was finally helped to success by a characteristic 

 freak of the game I was following. No other animals are 

 as keen-sighted, or are normally as wary as prong-horns ; 

 but no others are so whimsical and odd in their behavior 

 at times, or so subject to fits of the most stupid curiosity 

 and panic. Late in the afternoon, on topping a rise I 

 saw two good bucks racing off about three hundred yards 

 to one side ; I sprang to the ground, and fired three shots 

 at them in vain, as they ran like quarter-horses until they 

 disappeared over a slight swell. In a minute, however, 

 back they came, suddenly appearing over the crest of the 

 same swell, immediately in front of me, and, as I after- 

 wards found by pacing, some three hundred and thirty 

 yards away. They stood side by side facing me, and re- 

 mained motionless, unheeding the crack of the Win- 

 chester ; I aimed at the right-hand one, but a front shot 

 of the kind, at such a distance, is rather difficult, and it 

 was not until I fired for the fourth time that he sank back 

 out of sight. I could not tell whether I had killed him, 

 and took two shots at his mate, as the latter went off, but 

 without effect. Running forward, I found the first one 

 dead, the bullet having gone through him lengthwise ; the 

 other did not seem satisfied even yet, and kept hanging 

 round in the distance for some minutes, looking at us. 



I had thus bagged one prong-buck, as the net outcome 

 of the expenditure of fourteen cartridges. This was 

 certainly not good shooting ; but neither was it as bad as 



