The Wbitetail Deer 93 



carefully scan a likely country to see if I could not 

 detect something moving. On one occasion I ob- 

 tained an old whitetail buck by the simple exercise 

 of patience. I had twice found him in a broad 

 basin, composed of several coulies, all running 

 down to form the head of a big creek, and all of 

 them well timbered. He dodged me on both 

 occasions, and I made up my mind that I would 

 spend a whole day in watching for him from a 

 little natural ambush of sage brush and cedar on 

 a high point which overlooked the entire basin. 

 I crept up to my ambush with the utmost caution 

 early in the morning, and there I spent the entire 

 day, with my lunch and a water-bottle, continually 

 scanning the whole region most carefully with 

 the glasses. The day passed less monotonously 

 than it sounds, for every now and then I would 

 catch a glimpse of wild life ; once a fox, once a 

 coyote, and once a badger ; while the little chip- 

 munks had a fine time playing all around me. At 

 last, about mid-afternoon, I suddenly saw the buck 

 come quietly out of the dense thicket in which he 

 had made his midday bed, and deliberately walk 

 up a hillside and lie down in a thin clump of ash 

 where the sun could get at him for it was in 

 September, just before the rut began. There was 

 no chance of stalking him in the place he had 

 chosen, and all I could do was to wait. It was 

 nearly sunset before he moved again, except that 



