228 THE STILL-HUNTER. 



look back. Then he will feed or browse a little and 

 do plenty of looking back. Then lie will wander about 

 and stand around for a while, still looking back. And 

 finally he will lie down and think nothing more of the 

 back track unless he be one of the learned ones that 

 always watch the back track. But some deer such 

 as a very fat buck on a warm day are decidedly lazy. 

 I have known such a one run only out of sight over a 

 ridge, stop in the comfortable shade of a big bush, 

 watch there a few minutes, and then lie down. So I 

 have known a band of deer run over two or three ridges 

 and there stop and begin feeding in five minutes, 

 keeping then no more watch in the direction from 

 which they came than in any other. These and many 

 others I have known were cases in which the deer 

 ran only from noise and did not know what caused 

 it. But deer when very tame will often do it when 

 they have seen or smelled you. But even in such cases 

 do not follow directly upon the trail if you can possibly 

 avoid it. And be twenty times more careful than 

 ever before how you peep over a ridge. 



Although this will generally fail with deer at all 

 wild, yet it by no means follows that it is necessary to 

 follow them at once. Suppose you start a handsome 

 buck or a band of deer this morning. It may be 

 worth while to take the trail in the afternoon and fol- 

 low it up as you would the trail of any deer. And 

 though it might not reward you to keep directly on 

 the trail all the time, it may be best to follow it up to 

 the point where the deer begin to straggle and browse; 

 then back out and make a detour; and then either sit 

 them out if it be open ground and you can get a 

 commanding view, or else hunt as you would for any 

 deer. 



