DEER IN BANDS. GENERAL HINTS, ETC. 355 



much of the night is dark that the deer do much less 

 roaming then than about the full moon, when it is 

 light all night. The more roaming they do at night 

 the less they do by day or, rather, in the first half of 

 the day. But deer are generally on foot about as 

 early in the afternoon during full moon as at any 

 other time, and often earlier, because they lie down so 

 much earlier in the morning. Now if the moon is in 

 the first or second quarter it will be above the horizon 

 only in the early part of the night. The latter half of 

 the night being dark the deer will feed more after 

 daylight, at which time the moon will generally be 

 somewhere about our antipodes or opposite the zenith. 

 So when the moon is in the last quarter it will be still 

 above the western horizon about the time the deer, 

 having lain down early in the morning, rise again to 

 feed in the afternoon. The whole of which amounts 

 to this, that the lighter the night the longer the deer 

 will roam at night, and the more they move at night 

 the less they will move in the first half of the day. 



Beware of selling out future chances too cheap. 

 Suppose you are camped at a certain place and 

 toward evening find fresh tracks leading into a nice 

 little brushy basin or valley or some place that you 

 cannot hunt to advantage before dark or on account 

 of the wind or other cause. Should you go after the 

 game and start it the chances may be all against your 

 getting even a running shot. And it may run a mile 

 or more, so that it would take you all next day to find 

 it. It may in such case be better to leave the game 

 alone that night and be there at daylight in the morn- 

 ing. The same may be the case with a band or a sin- 

 gle deer that you actually see. If it is too far off or 

 too dark to shoot to advantage your chances may be 



