20 THE STILL-HUNTER. 



is a long list of berries and fruits which they will eat; 

 and individuals sometimes extend their researches 

 beyond this list. I once shot a fat buck that con- 

 tained half a peck of the worst kind of prickly 

 pears. There are, however, but few fruits or nuts 

 that influence their movements much, and of these 

 the principal are chestnuts, beechnuts, and acorns. 

 Wherever there is abundance of these, in a very short 

 time after they begin to fall the deer will gather in to 

 feed on them, sometimes shifting ground many miles 

 to get convenient access to them. And of all these 

 the most universal is the acorn. Deer are very fond 

 of bush and scrub-oak acorns, which they begin to 

 eat earlier in the season than the tree acorns, not 

 being obliged to await their falling. But ground on 

 which these grow is apt to be too brushy and make 

 too much noise for very successful hunting. The best 

 ground, for the beginner especially, is the ground 

 known as "oak ridges," consisting of small "hog- 

 backs" or higher ridges covered with black oak, red 

 oak, and white oak. These are found throughout all 

 the heavy forests of the Eastern and Western States, 

 and here one has a prospect of interviewing a bear, 

 as he too is fond of acorns. Moreover, if you hunt 

 east of the Missouri you can do little till the leaves 

 have fallen, and by that time, if it is an " acorn sea- 

 son," there will be more or less acorns upon almost 

 any good deer-range. So you had better go first to 

 the " oak ridges." 



One of the first points upon which you should sat- 

 isfy yourself is this question: How much are the deer 

 disturbed by still-hunting? For it is a settled fact, of 

 which you must never lose sight, that a deer's habits 



