42 Deer and Antelope of North America 



the heat. During the heavy snowstorms they 

 usually retreated into some ravine where the trees 

 grew thicker than usual, not stirring until the 

 weight of the storm was over. Most of the night, 

 especially if it was moonlight, they fed ; but they 

 were not at all regular about this. I frequently 

 saw them standing up and grazing, or more rarely 

 browsing, in the middle of the day, and in the 

 late afternoon they often came down to graze 

 on the flats within view of the different ranch 

 houses where I happened to stop. The hours 

 for feeding and resting, however, always vary 

 accordingly as the deer are or are not perse- 

 cuted. In wild localities I have again and again 

 found these deer grazing at all hours of the day, 

 and coming to water at high noon ; whereas, where 

 they have been much persecuted, they only begin 

 to feed after dusk, and come to water after dark. 

 Of course during this winter weather they could 

 get no water, snow supplying its place. 



I was immensely interested with the way they 

 got through the wire fences. A mule-deer is a 

 great jumper; I have known them to clear with 

 ease high timber corral fences surrounding hay- 

 ricks. If the animals had chosen, they could have 

 jumped any of the wire fences I saw ; yet never 

 in a single instance did I see one of them so jump 

 a fence, nor did I ever find in the tell-tale snow 

 tracks which indicated their having done so. 



