IN THE FAR WEST. 165 



killing her with a lucky shot just as she was about attacking 

 him. It is a common idea among hunters that the cows have 

 little affection for their calves, and that they will desert them 

 in a moment if threatened by any danger. While this is 

 generally true, yet there are some notable exceptions, and any 

 person who has ever seen a mother lick and fondle her young 

 one must know she has a deep feeling for it. I have known a 

 eow which left her calf in a little dell, come bounding and 

 bellowing about our party to see if we had captured it, and 

 when she did not find it, go dashing back again in a state of 

 the greatest excitement, and bellowing loudly for it. 



A mother has even been known to charge headlong into a 

 small valley in which her young one was concealed on find- 

 ing a hunter there, and cause him to run for his life; and 

 another not only charged a body of mounted hunters, on 

 suspicion that they had stolen her calf, but dashed wildly up 

 and down, and circled around a flying column containing at 

 least five thousand buffaloes, thinking it might be among them. 

 When she could not find it she fled over the plains in a crazed 

 state, and uttered pitious calls for her darling at intervals; 

 but no answer came back to her until she had disappeared over 

 a hill in the horizon. Whatever may be said about their 

 affection, it is certainly true that they are very careless mothers, 

 for they leave their young without any hesitation in exposed 

 situations where they are liable to be attacked at any moment 

 by wolves, and in this way many of them arc destroyed 

 annually, for the lupine prowlers are always vigilant, ready to 

 eat at all hours of the day or night, and miss no opportunity 

 of killing a young one even though they are not hungry. 

 The calves themselves seem also to be very stupid creatures, 

 for, instead of dashing off to join the herds and claim their 

 protection, they frequently, especially if a little tired, merely 

 poke their nose into a bunch of grass, and because they them- 

 selves cannot see, they fancy they are perfectly concealed from 

 all foes. This idea is soon rudely banished, however, by the 

 sudden onslaught of ravenous wolves or the rifle and lariat of 

 the hunter. 



Lassoing calves is most interesting sport, as the creatures 



