Tbe Prongborn Antelope 101 



than bighorns. Within the next decade they 

 had almost totally disappeared, while the bighorn 

 was still to be found ; I shot one and saw others 

 in 1893, at which time I had not authentic in- 

 formation of a single wapiti remaining anywhere 

 on the river in my neighborhood, although it is 

 possible that one or two still lurked in some 

 out-of-the-way recess. In Colorado at one time 

 the bighorn was killed out much more rapidly 

 than the wapiti ; but of late years in that state 

 the rapidity of destruction of the latter has in- 

 creased far beyond what is true in the case of the 

 former. 



I mention these facts partly because they are 

 of interest in themselves, but chiefly because they 

 tend to explain the widely different opinions ex- 

 pressed by competent observers about what seem 

 superficially to be similar facts. It cannot be too 

 often repeated that allowance must be made for 

 the individual variability of the traits and charac- 

 ters of animals of the same species, and especially 

 of the same species under different circumstances 

 and in different localities; and allowance must 

 also be made for the variability of the individual 

 factor in the observers themselves. Many seem- 

 ingly contradictory observations of the habits of 

 deer, wapiti, and prongbuck will be found in books 

 by the best hunters. Take such questions as the 

 keenness of sight of the deer as compared with 



