DEER IN BANDS. GENERAL HINTS, ETC. 251 



about and the nearer ones will be likely to move in 

 sight it may be best to lie still for a while and watch. 

 If at a time when they are likely to be lying down it 

 may be better to shoot at the one you see, as the 

 others may not move again for hours; the one you 

 see may be the only one on foot ; and even that one 

 may lie down at any minute. If early in the after- 

 noon, the ground bad for a running shot, and the one 

 you see too far away, it may be best to sit down and 

 wait for them to rise toward evening. And all this 

 may be changed by the fact that they are moving 

 from place to place and the brush prevents your see- 

 ing the rest of the band. For deer can feed along 

 through brush quite low and thin without your see- 

 ing them unless you are well above them. 



Banded deer may deceive you very much in your 

 estimate of the number of deer about. They then do 

 so much more moving than when single that they will 

 track up an immense amount of ground in such a 

 way that you would fully believe there were at least 

 twenty deer where there were not over six or eight. 

 And even two miles square of ground may be so 

 tracked up by a restless band that one would declare 

 deer very plenty, when in fact they may be scarce, the 

 next band being two or three miles away and the 

 whole average being only two to the square mile. A 

 band will occasionally keep quite still for several days 

 or weeks. But the rule is the other way. 



In shooting into a band in rough or brushy ground 

 you are very apt to get demoralized. You should 

 shoot just as deliberately as at any time, not hurry- 

 ing in the least because you see other deer than the 

 one you are shooting at. And, above all, you should 

 keep account of every deer struck, whether it fell or 



