The North American Cervidce. 135 



The keenness of the deer's olfactories has become proverbial, and 

 the experienced hunter, when starting out, always first satisfies him- 

 self as to the direction of the wind ; for a deer, when its nose has 

 told it that a man is in the neighborhood, waits for no more definite 

 information on the subject, does not seek to learn just where he is, 

 nor how far off, but makes the best of its way from the spot. All 

 deer are alike in possessing this keen power of scent and in the 

 readiness with which they take to flight when warned by this 

 sense. 



From the very nature of the case, the eyes are less to be relied on 

 to warn the animal of danger. We are accustomed to hear men say 

 that the deer's vision is defective, and even so good an authority as 

 Judge Caton makes this statement in his excellent work on this 

 group. There seems to be no sufficient reason for supposing this to 

 be the case. It is true that deer will pass close by a man sitting in 

 the woods without seeing him, provided only he remains perfectly 

 motionless ; but this does not necessarily imply any imperfection of 

 vision. Other mammals and birds will do precisely the same thing. 

 The deer would not walk up to a man standing or sitting in the mid- 

 dle of a meadow, and where there were no surrounding objects. A 

 man, if motionless, in the woods, when clothed in hunter's garb, very 

 closely resembles a stump or a stick. The deer is not especially 

 familiar with the human form and does not recognize in it anything 

 alarming, nor, since it is without motion, does it distinguish it from 

 any of the many other quiescent objects over which its eye passes, 

 and which it has no especial reason for closely examining. Its expe- 

 rience has taught it that these quiescent objects are not dangerous, 

 and it therefore pays no attention to them unless they are markedly 

 different in appearance from those to which its eye is accustomed. A 

 white tent or a red shirt will, however, at once catch a deer's eye, 

 because these are unusual objects. Anything that moves is observed 

 at once, and, unless it is recognized as something commonly seen 

 and not dangerous, is avoided. The deer has no friends ; the hand 

 of man and of the larger animals is against him ; and the fact that an 

 object moves, and hence has life, is to him primd facie evidence that 

 it is an enemy, and so, on the slightest hint of danger, he takes to his 

 heels Like other wild creatures, the deer seems to recognize danger 

 only in life, and life only in motion. 



