THE MULE-DEER 



251 



position, having spent several hours of considerable labor 

 in vain. It was now about noon, and I thought I would 

 lie still to see what he would do when he got up, and 

 accordingly I ate my lunch stretched at full length in 

 the long grass which sheltered me from the wind. From 

 time to time I peered cautiously between two stones 

 toward where the buck lay. It was nearly mid-afternoon 

 before he moved. Sometimes mule-deer rise with a sin- 

 gle motion, all four legs unbending like springs, so that 

 the four hoofs touch the ground at once. This old buck, 

 however, got up very slowly, looked about for certainly 

 five minutes, and then came directly down the hill and 

 toward me. When he had nearly reached the bottom of 

 the valley between us he turned to the right and sauntered 

 rapidly down it. I slipped back and trotted as fast as 

 I could without losing my breath along the hither side 

 of the spur which lay between me and the buck. While 

 I was out of sight he had for some reason made up his 

 mind to hurry, and when I was still fifty yards from the 

 end of the spur he came in sight just beyond it, passing 

 at a swinging trot. I dropped on one knee so quickly 

 that for a moment he evidently could not tell what I 

 was my buckskin shirt and gray slouch-hat fading into 

 the color of the background and halted, looking sharp- 

 ly around. Before he could break into flight my bullet 

 went through his shoulders. 



Twice I have killed two of these deer at a shot; once 

 two bucks, and once a doe and a buck. 



It has proved difficult to keep the mule-deer in cap- 

 tivity, even in large private parks or roomy zoological 



