CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAME 259 



spreads of 24 and 26 inches. These dimensions were checked by measur- 

 ing the distance between two trees where the bucks passed. I noted 

 that these bucks were very careful to prevent their antlers from striking 

 when they were standing close together (see Fig. 97). At this season 

 these bucks, which four months later would be fighting viciously for 

 supremacy, were the acme of gentleness. Soon after the sunshine 

 reached the meadow where they were feeding, the comrades, by mutual 

 consent, lined up in single file and left the meadow for the seclusion 

 and heavy shade of a nearby dense grove of young yellow pines where 

 they bedded down, almost touching each other. 



This sociability was marked among the bucks of Yosemite on the 

 evening of July 18, 1928, when I watched nine bucks (two 4-pointers, 

 three 3-pointers, one 3-2 pointer, two 2-pointers, and one spike) feeding 

 harmoniously together in an area not exceeding one acre. At times 

 five of the bucks fed contentedly together in the meadow on a plot of 

 ground 50 feet square. When thus closely banded together, the larger 

 bucks took special care not to touch or to strike their antlers (then 

 nearly grown) against those of their comrades. This restraint was 

 probably primarily due to the tenderness of their own growing antlers 

 rather than to any particular consideration for the "other fellow." 



In order to test the sensitiveness of a buck's growing antlers while 

 they were in the velvet, I have twice very gently touched the tips of a 

 tame buck's antler. I found the velvet soft and the antler warm to the 

 touch. However, the buck was very sensitive when the slightest pres- 

 sure was applied to his antler and immediately shook his head and 

 trotted away. 



In marked contrast to this friendliness between the adult bucks 

 during the summer, I found that the young bucks were exceedingly 

 jealous of each other, especially when does were about. On July 13, 

 1929, in Yosemite Valley I watched a forked-horn buck with antlers 

 still soft and in the velvet chase a smaller buck with undeveloped 

 antlers away from an adult doe. The forked-horn made no effort to 

 use his antlers but drove his adversary away by effective thrusts of 

 his forelegs and sharp hoofs, thus using the same method of defense that 

 the doe uses the year around. 



I have watched in vain during many "rutting" seasons for some 

 evidence of kindly consideration on the part of the bucks for the does. 

 However, in Yosemite Valley on July 12, 1928, just after sunrise, I was 

 watching a doe that was exceedingly heavy with fawn as she grazed 

 about near the margin of an open meadow. Her sides were greatly 

 distended, and her full udder indicated that she would give birth to 

 her fawn within the next few days. I was much surprised to see an 

 adult three-point buck follow this doe about and lick her back and 

 sides. He even stood and nibbled woodticks on her back. The doe did 

 not resent the attentions thus showered upon her. On the contrary, 

 she stopped and stood still to receive them. The buck made no amorous 

 advances and seemed only to be interested in the well-being of the doe. 

 I have never seen such real gentleness shown does even by the most con- 

 siderate bucks during the mating season, at which time the males might 

 be expected to lavish the greatest care on the females. 



