CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAME 265 



steadily for a period of eight minutes by the watch, indulging in the 

 frequent buttings of the mother which are so characteristic in the case 

 of a domestic calf. After an interval of rest of 10 minutes, it again 

 nursed for an additional period of two minutes. The fawns normally 

 nursed hurriedly, 10 minutes' nursing forming a full meal. The male 

 fawn was led by his mother, after he had nursed, back to the identical 

 spot which had served as his hiding place during the entire morning. 

 Contrasted to this, his sister had wandered over a five-acre tract of 

 open meadow during her mother's absence. However, during the rest 

 of the day both fawns remained in close hiding. 



On various occasions I have taken the opportunity to test out the 

 theory which has often been advanced that during the first few days 

 of their lives the fawns carry no scent or body odor. When the fawns 

 were from two to five days old I tried repeatedly, with my nose within 

 an inch of the living animal, to detect any odor, but was unable to do 

 so. I even buried my nostrils in the fawn's hairy coat without being 

 able to detect any distinctive odor. I then tried smelling the metatarsal 

 and hoof glands, but again I was unable to detect any odor. This test 

 was repeated a number of times with various fawns that were less 

 than a week old, but always with negative results. In another instance 

 while I was hunting cougars with J. Bruce, State Lion Hunter of 

 California, I have known his foxhounds and bloodhounds, which had the 

 sense of smell highly developed, to pass by within six or eight feet of 

 a young fawn hidden in the grass without detecting its presence. In 

 a similar manner I have watched black bears hunting for fawns in the 

 meadows during the early morning hours, and noted that they appear 

 to hunt entirely by sight rather than through the sense of smell. 



From these various experiences I have come to the conclusion that 

 young faM'ns do not give off any appreciable odor during the first few 

 days of their lives. 



Unexpected hiding places are sometimes utilized by certain does. 

 Thus on July 14, 1929, in Yosemite, a doe gave birth to twin fawns at 

 3 o'clock in the afternoon. The following morning she moved both 

 fawns from their birthplace in an azalea thicket to new hiding places in 

 another thicket nearby. One of the fawns of its own volition wandered 

 over to the river's edge, a distance of 50 yards. Here it crawled into 

 and hid under a pile of driftwood and debris. The extreme heat of the 

 fawn's hiding place seemed to be unsatisfactory, and the doe promptly 

 proceeded to take it back to the azalea thicket. 



When first born, the fawns escape detection and pursuit by crouch- 

 ing in the grass and remaining motionless with necks outstretched 

 (see Fig. 70). However, this is not their regular posture when in repose, 

 for when undisturbed the same fawns are nearly always found curled 

 up with heads turned back resting upon their bodies. This latter 

 position is the true or normal resting posture. 



On July 12, 1928, I watched a male fawn three days old as he 

 sought to escape notice when frightened from his hiding place in a 

 dense clump of saw-grass that was thirty inches high, but instead of 

 hiding there, he sneaked out on the farther side and, crouching low to 

 the ground, crawled off thirty feet to one side of the spot where he 

 disappeared, and there lay down with his neck outstretched amid the 

 thin grass in the open. However, owing to the brown, spotted pattern 

 of his back, he was well concealed. 



