76 . * THE STILL-HUNTER. 



still observed. In regard to noise from your feet you 

 must be even more cautious than when looking for 

 deer on foot; since they will hear noise from your 

 feet more readily when lying with head near the 

 ground than when standing. 



Though a deer cannot smell or see you quite so 

 readily when lying down as when on foot, he can still 

 do either quickly enough. A deer lies generally with 

 head up and sometimes with it laid over on one side; 

 but in either case is nearly always listening and 

 watching. Occasionally a deer falls in the daytime 

 into a light doze, and once in a while you may thus 

 get very close to one before he springs. In such case 

 he is very apt to stop after a jump or two. But the 

 times when a deer thus loses himself in the daytime 

 are very rare, and nearly all his sleeping is done at 

 night. And even if he were sound asleep in the day- 

 time, it would not allow of any carelessness in ap- 

 proaching him. His senses are not to be trifled with 

 under any circumstances. So that the question of a 

 deer's sleeping by day is of no practical importance. 



Sometimes a deer will purposely lie still when he 

 hears a person. This kind of lying close will rarely 

 or never trouble you on the kind of ground we are 

 now considering. All your trouble will be the other 

 way. 



Sometimes it is quite easy to see a deer while in bed; 

 as where they are in open timber or open bluffy country 

 with little heavy brush, but with snow on the ground 

 and the country rolling enough to allow you to get 

 well above them so as to look down upon them. At 

 such times every dark-looking oval spot, no matter 

 how much it may resemble a stump, requires close 

 inspection. Where they are lying under trees on open 



