THE WHITETAIL DEER 217 



great deal of sneaking round and round through the un- 

 derbrush and cottonwoods before they finally made up 

 their minds to leave the bottom. On one occasion a buck 

 came sneaking down a game trail through the buck brush 

 where I stood, going so low that I could just see the 

 tips of his antlers, and though I made desperate efforts 

 I was not able to get into a position from which I could 

 obtain a shot. On another occasion, while I was looking 

 intently into a wood through which I was certain a deer 

 would pass, it deliberately took to the open ground be- 

 hind me, and I did not see it until it was just vanishing. 

 Normally, the end of my efforts was that the deer went 

 off and the hounds disappeared after it, not to return 

 for six or eight hours. Once or twice things favored 

 me ; I happened to take the right turn or go in the right 

 direction, and the deer happened to blunder past me; and 

 then I returned with venison for supper. Two or three 

 times I shot deer about nightfall or at dawn, in the im- 

 mediate neighborhood of the ranch, obtaining them by 

 sneaking as noiselessly as possible along the cattle trails 

 through the brush and timber, or by slipping along the 

 edge of the river bank. Several times I saw deer while 

 I was sitting on the piazza or on the doorstep of the 

 ranch, and on one occasion I stepped back into the house, 

 got the rifle, and dropped the animal from where I stood. 

 On yet other occasions I obtained whitetail which 

 lived not on the river bottoms but among the big patches 

 of brush and timber in the larger creeks. When they 

 were found in such country I hunted them very much 

 as I hunted the mule-deer, and usually shot one when 



