STATUS OF THE PEOISTGHOEOSrED ANTELOPE, 1922-1924 7 



the level plain. The buck immediately whirled and began racing him 

 over the grassy park, gradually drawing in until it finally crossed 

 the trail almost under the horse's nose and certainly not more than 

 10 feet away, after which it clashed off and disappeared in the 

 neighboring scattered growth of cedars. 



On another occasion, after a long hunt, the writer was returning 

 to camp just as it was becoming too dark to distinguish objects at a 

 distance. Camp was some miles away, and in order to get there 

 quickly he was galloping his horse down the middle of a long, 

 narrow park in the scattered pinyon and cedar forest. He was 

 paying no attention to anything except what lay immediately in 

 front until a curious sound at his right caused him to look, and there 

 he made out the dim forms of a band of about 20 antelope which, in 

 a long line about 30 yards away, were racing him down the park. 

 Eventually they gained sufficient headway to cross his course a short 

 distance in front, when they disappeared. It was so dark at the 

 time that their forms could be only dimly seen. 



In discussing the pronghorn with many hunters who have been 

 familiar with it in early days the writer has noted that without ex- 

 ception they have accounts illustrating the extraordinary and appar- 

 ently overwhelming curiosity of these animals. This very fre- 

 quently has led the animals to expose themselves to the most immi- 

 nent danger. They sometimes would come almost into the midst of 

 a camp to satisfy themselves as to the strange beings who had 

 suddenly appeared in their territory, and many fell victims to this 

 habit. 



CHOSEN HABITAT ■ 



The natural home of the pronghorn was on the treeless, grassy, 

 and often desert plains of the continent. The animals would scatter 

 singly or in small bands in spring and summer, especially during 

 the period when the does were caring for their young fawns. As 

 winter approached they began to gather in bands, sometimes con- 

 taining thousands of individuals, and to seek favorable feeding 

 grounds for the winter. A band of more than 500 frequented a 

 broken and open pinyon and cedar forest in the part of eastern Ari- 

 zona where the writer lived in the early eighties. In summer they 

 broke up and scattered over the more open plains in the adjacent 

 parts of New Mexico and northern Arizona. Numbers of them con- 

 tinued to reside through the year among the pinyon and cedar forests, 

 but the bulk of the band went out on the grassy plains. In winter 

 they were very fond of gathering in the pinyon and cedar forests, 

 where they were sheltered from the cold storms which made the open 

 plains places of discomfort. When within these scrubby sheltering 

 forests they were especially liable to become victims of predatory 

 animals and hunters. Near the base of the Sandra Mountains, in 

 New Mexico, the writer knew of hunters trailing bands of antelope 

 among the pinyons during long-continued snow storms and killing 

 many of them one after the other. The animals thus falling victims 

 to the hunter would be roughly dressed and hung up in a pinyon 

 tree, and then the hunter would resume the trail of the survivors 

 and in a comparatively short distance again overtake them and 

 obtain another victim. In this way as many as 10 or 12 could bo 

 killed at times during a single morning. 



