The Mule-deer 47 



In the old days, as I have already said, it was 

 by no means infrequent to see both the whitetail 

 and the mule-deer close together, and when, under 

 such circumstances, they were alarmed, one got a 

 peculiarly clear idea of the extraordinary gait 

 which is the mule-deer's most striking character- 

 istic. It trots wells, gallops if hard pressed, and 

 is a good climber, though much inferior to the 

 mountain sheep. But its normal gait consists of 

 a series of stiff-legged bounds, all four feet leav- 

 ing and striking the ground at the same time. 

 This gait differs more from the gait of bighorn, 

 prongbuck, whitetail, and wapiti than the gaits of 

 these latter animals differ among themselves. 

 The wapiti, for instance, rarely gallops, but when 

 he does, it is a gallop of the ordinary type. The 

 prongbuck runs with a singularly even gait; 

 whereas the whitetail makes great bounds, some 

 much higher than others. But fundamentally in 

 all cases the action is the same, and has no resem- 

 blance to the stiff-legged buck jumping which is 

 the ordinary means of progression of the mule- 

 deer. These jumps carry it not only on the level, 

 but up and down hill at a great speed. It is said 

 to be a tiresome gait for the animal, if hunted for 

 any length of time on the level ; but of this I 

 cannot speak with full knowledge. 



Compared to the wapiti, the mule-deer, like 

 our other small deer, is a very silent animal. For 



