and the Maritime Provinces. 51 



savage manner in which he sometimes attacks other animals, even man 

 himself, makes him a formidable assailant. I once had a pair that I kept 

 a few months as pets, but the buck proved to be such a savage, treacher- 

 ous animal, attacking every one he could reach, even his feeder, handling 

 his sharp horns with the greatest dexterity, and striking with his fore feet 

 in a most vicious way, that I had to dispose of them. 



" The bucks, in the mating season, have fierce combats for the posses- 

 sion of the does, and sometimes these fights terminate fatally to both by 

 reason of their antlers becoming so interlocked that they cannot disengage 

 them, and they consequently die of exhaustion and starvation. Instances 

 of the moose and caribou meeting their death in this manner have also 

 been recorded. 



" In the spring the deer browses on the tender shoots and opening 

 buds and leaves of bushes and young trees, particularly birches and 

 maples, and as the season advances it grazes on the grass and weeds that 

 spring up in old logging roads, and in tracts of land that have been burned 

 over. In the summer it frequents the forest, lakes and ponds, where it 

 feeds on various aquatic plants and grasses. In settled localities, it is 

 often seen in pastures quietly grazing with cows and other stock. 



" In the autumn it browses on the twigs of young growth of trees and 

 bushes, and in hard-wood forests it feeds greedily on acorns and beech 

 nuts, and in winter it subsists on buds, mosses, lichens, and even, if hard 

 pressed, the foliage of evergreen and the bark of hard-wood trees. 



" The doe usually brings forth two young, or fawns, which are dropped 

 in May or June. These are timid, beautiful little creatures, marked with 

 white spots on their sides and in the highest degree graceful in all their 

 movements. When young they often fall victims to the bear, fox, and " bob- 

 cat," or Canadian lynx, the latter animal dropping on them from a limb of 

 a tree that overhangs their path. In fact, the mother has been known to 

 become the prey of the lynx, she being unable to shake off her savage and 

 relentless assailant. 



" The matured male deer, in good condition, weighs about one hundred 

 and fifty pounds, a weight of two hundred pounds is not uncommon, and a 

 very heavy animal will weigh two hundred and fifty or three hundred 

 pounds, and even this has been exceeded.* 



*A very large buck is described in the magnificent report of the N. Y. 

 Commissioners of Fisheries, Game and Forests for 1895, as follows : — 



" Weight before being dressed, 388 pounds ; height over withers, 4 

 feet, 3 inches. There are nine prongs on one antler and ten on the 

 other. Length of antlers, 32 inches ; distance between antlers, 26 1-2 

 inches; length from tip of nose to tip of tail, 9 feet, 7 inches." The ani- 

 mal measured 37 inches around the neck, back of the head and the longest 

 spike on one beam was 13 inches." 



