THE WIIITETAIL DEER. 



51 



CHAPTER III. 



THE WHITETAIL DEER ; AND THE BLACK lAIL 

 OF THE COLUMBIA. 



THE whitetail deer is much the commonest 

 game animal of the United States, be- 

 ing still found, though generally in greatly 

 diminished numbers throughout most of 

 the Union. It is a shrewd, wary, knowing 

 beast ; but it owes its prolonged stay in the 

 land chiefly to the fact that it is an inveterate 

 skulker, and fond of the thickest cover. Ac- 

 cordingly it usually has to be killed by stealth 

 and stratagem, and not by fair, manly hunt- 

 ing ; being quite easily slain in any one of 

 half a dozen unsportsmanlike ways. In con- 

 sequence I care less for its chase than for the 

 chase of any other kind of American big 

 game. Yet in the few places where it dwells 

 in open, hilly forests and can be killed by 

 still-hunting as if it were a blacktail ; or 

 better still, where the nature of the ground 

 is such that it can be run down in fair chase 

 on horseback, either with greyhounds, or with 

 a pack of trackhounds, it yields splendid sport. 

 Killing a deer from a boat while the poor 

 animal is swimming in the water, or on snow- 

 shoes as it flounders helplessly in the deep 

 drifts, can only be justified on the plea of 

 hunger. This is also true of lying in wait at 



