294 THE DEER OF AMERICA. 



limp as a wet rag, the head and limbs hanging down, without 

 the least muscular action, the bright eye fairly sparkling all tlie 

 time. The first I met really deceived me, for I thought it had 

 met with some accident by which it was completely paralyzed, 

 and returned the next day expecting to find it dead. It was 

 gone, and soon after I found it following its dam as sprightly as 

 possible. Last spring I found one, picked it up, and carried it 

 some distance and laid it down, and watched for some time from 

 a distance, but not the least sign of life would it manifest, save 

 only in the bright eye. 



The Elk's fawn follows its dam much sooner than most of the 

 other deer. At most it is left in seclusion but a day or two, 

 when the mother takes it in immediate charge, and they mingle 

 with the herd. In this regard the habit of Wapiti differs from 

 that of the smaller deer, who keep their young secluded for 

 several weeks. 



The result of my experiments shows that the confinement of 

 this deer in parks of even considerable extent, impairs its repro- 

 ductive powers. This result, I think, is attributable to both 

 sexes. On the part of the female the inclination to breed seems 

 much diminished, and this is especially so with the young ones. 

 In the wild state they breed at two J'ears old, while in my 

 grounds I do not think one has ever bred till after she was four 

 years old, and scarcely more than half of the older females may 

 be expected to produce young. This, however, may be attrib- 

 uted to the male. With him the inclination to breed seems to be 

 unimpaired, at least it is strong enough, but the limited range 

 gives the monarch such an opportunity to indulge liis propensity 

 to appropriate all the does to himself, and there is such a constant 

 effort required to keep them together, when the number is con- 

 siderable, besides the continual worry occasioned by a dozen or fif- 

 teen other large bucks, some of which, at least, intrude upon his 

 privacy, and seem to take delight in teasing him, and provoking 

 him to paroxysms of ungovernable rage, that his vital powers 

 are soon impaired, and his capacity for reproduction, if not de- 

 stroyed, is greatly reduced. This was especially manifest with j 

 the " Sultan," who reigned supreme the longest in my grounds, 

 and now may be seen as a mounted specimen in the Royal Museum I 

 at Christiana, Norway. At first his progeny were reasonably 

 numerous, but during the last three years of his life they gradu- 

 ally diminished from a dozen down to a single fawn in 1875, with 

 about twenty-five females, more than half of which had pre- 



