DAILY LIFE OF DEER AND ANTELOPE. 61 



knowledge to find their particular whereabouts. But, 

 given the general whereabouts of deer, it generally, on 

 bare ground, remains a highly intricate problem to 

 find the clew to their particular whereabouts. To do 

 this, on ground where it is not possible or advisable to 

 track, a pretty accurate knowledge of the deer's life is 

 necessary. This varies so much in the details in dif- 

 ferent countries, and even in different parts of the 

 same country, that all that any writer can do within 

 the limits of a general work is to mark out the out- 

 lines and leave them to be filled in by your own expe- 

 rience and study in the woods. 



The deer is an early riser. He is generally up before 

 daybreak, and often up the whole night except at 

 short intervals. But by daybreak he is nearly always 

 on foot. About the first thing he does in those coun- 

 tries where water is scarce and where the season is 

 dry and hot enough to make him thirsty is to start 

 for water. This he may do very leisurely, though; 

 feeding along the way and taking plenty of time to 

 look about him, so that he may not reach water until 

 sunrise or long after. Or he may go straight to it and 

 walk away quite as rapidly as he came. Or he may 

 come directly to it and then lounge away from it, feed- 

 ing and looking as he goes. How a deer will act in 

 going to water or leaving it, as well as his time of 

 watering, are things that cannot be reduced to rule. 

 When entirely undisturbed they will in hot weather 

 water at any time of day, and when flies or mosquitoes 

 are bad will spend much of their time there if there 

 are large bodies of water. But where there are simply 

 small drinking-holes they will rarely stay there, and if 

 disturbed much will water only at night or very early 

 in the morning. And they will be apt to do the same 



