CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAME 



215 



nursing for ten minutes, each fawn of his or her own volition, and not 

 being assisted by the mother, went off by itself and selected a safe 

 hiding place. The first fawn chose to hide in a clump of green grass that 

 grew between two flat boulders out in the open sunlight. The other 

 fawn chose an open shelf at the mouth of a wide crack at the base of 

 a large granite rock (see Fig. 71). This male fawn left and returned 

 to this bed three times during the morning. Another variation with 

 locality was apparent, for in Giant Forest the does appear to prefer 

 having and keeping their fawns on the dry ridges at the protecting 

 base of some giant Sequoia rather than out in the grassy meadow as in 

 Yosemite. 



Fig. 71. One fawn chose his own resting place and bedded at the ba.se of 

 a large granite boulder. Giant Forest, Sequoia, July 1, 1933. Wild Life Division 

 No. 3101. 



MANNERISMS 



Gait. 



The general appearance and movements of the mule deer are rela- 

 tively clumsy compared with those of the black-tailed deer, and par- 

 ticularly so when compared with those of the white-tailed deer. The 

 large body, robust limbs, and particularly the enormous ears of the 

 Rocky Mountain mule deer give it a clumsy appearance which is notice- 

 able when the animal is walking and even when it is running or bound- 

 ing. The hounding gait of the mule deer has received special attention 

 from numerous writers. As a matter of fact, it is one of the most char- 

 acteristic attributes of the species and, though seemingly ungainly, such 

 a bounding gait accomplishes two very desirable and important func- 

 tions. In the first place, it enables the animal to travel rapidly over 



