R UNNING- TIME. 117 



And if you do not thus get on their course you are no 

 better off than if it were not " running-time." 



I have seen some very silly stuff in print about the 

 ease with which any blockhead can kill a deer in " run- 

 ning-time." This always comes from the advocates 

 of driving deer with hounds men who generally know 

 nothing of still-hunting, but think it necessary to de- 

 fend hounding by condemning still-hunting. If one 

 happens on the right runway and does not get flur- 

 ried when the procession comes, this is true enough. 

 But unless he happens upon the course of a doe, he 

 can do nothing more than at any other time. 



It is said " all one has to do is to lie along a run- 

 way and shoot." 



Now unless deer are extremely plenty the chances 

 of getting on a runway likely to be used that day for 

 such a parade are all against the hunter. And there 

 is absolutely nothing by which the most experienced 

 hunter can decide what runway deer will take at such 

 a time unless he has already seen them in motion. 



The habits of deer in forming and traveling in run- 

 ways or paths are peculiar, and vary with localities 

 in a way difficult to reduce to rule. In nearly all coun- 

 tries deer will form runways when the snow gets deep, 

 but by that time they are generally so poor that only 

 the brute will molest them. On bare ground deer will 

 generally form runways in very hilly, rocky, brushy, 

 or swampy ground. But it is equally certain that on 

 such ground they often do not form them. 



They also, on some kinds of ground, change their 

 runways so often that when you find one you cannot 

 feel certain that it will be traveled again at all. And 

 they often have so many that you cannot decide 

 whether the next travel upon any one will be to-day 



