136 THE STILL-HUNTER. 



is transmitted by descent until even the fawns will 

 watch back. 



I do not mean that all deer, even very wild ones, 

 will always do this, but so many of them will that it 

 is best to hunt on the assumption that all will. The 

 greater includes the less, and you will lose little or 

 nothing by dealing with the very tamest deer as if 

 they were the very wildest. On the contrary, the use 

 of care and skill even in the highest degree will re- 

 pay you heavily even when hunting the tamest deer 

 that are now to be found. 



Let us now try another style of tactics. Here is 

 the trail of a doe and two yearlings that have left the 

 ridges about half an hour ago. They have done 

 feeding and have gone off to lie down. As you al- 

 ready know they may lounge about an hour or two 

 before they go to lie down. And during this hour or 

 two they may go a quarter of a mile only or a full 

 mile, but probably will not go over half a mile. 



You are in a part of the woods that is new to 

 you. But never mind that. Glance over the ground 

 as far as you can and see if you cannot get a pretty 

 fair idea of where those deer will go. You know 

 that somewhere on the north is the " slash," and that 

 there are windfalls and brushy ridges to the east. 

 All the better to know this. But let us suppose you 

 have no idea of the " lay of the land " beyond what 

 you can see from here. 



Far away in the direction the tracks have gone you 

 can make out the dim outline of a long strip of brush 

 such as generally lines a little creek. Along that 

 creek there is likely to be a flat with more or less 

 brush in it. It was to such ground that your doe 

 and fawns went yesterday. There is plenty of such 



