The Pronghorn Antelope 123 



markings on their heads and necks showing as 

 if they were in livery. Scan the country as care- 

 fully as I would, they were far more apt to see 

 me than I was them, and once they had seen me, 

 it was normally hopeless to expect to get them. 

 But their strange freakishness of nature frequently 

 offset the keenness of their senses. At least half 

 of the prongbucks which I shot were obtained, 

 not by stalking, but by coming across them purely 

 through their own fault. Though the prairie 

 seemed level, there was really a constant series 

 of undulations, shallow and of varying width. 

 Now and then as I topped some slight rise I 

 would catch a glimpse of a little band of prong- 

 horns feeding, and would slip off my horse before 

 they could see me. A hasty determination as to 

 where the best chance of approaching them lay 

 would be followed by a half-hour's laborious 

 crawl, a good part of the time flat on my face. 

 They might discover me when I was still too far 

 for a shot ; or by taking advantage of every little 

 inequality I might get within long range before 

 they got a glimpse of me, and then in a reason- 

 able proportion of cases I would bag my buck. 

 At other times the buck would come to me. 

 Perhaps one would suddenly appear over a divide 

 himself, and his curiosity would cause him to 

 stand motionless long enough to give me a shot ; 

 while on other occasions I have known one which 



