1482 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



WHITE PATCH LAY CLOSE TO A FALLEN TREE 



and hungry. He called and called for his mo- 

 ther, but she failed to appear. He feared to 

 hunt for her in the great forest where he had 

 seen the strange animal. It soon grew dark 

 and the weird noises of the coyote's mournful 

 call frightened him very much. 



Then, away off in the dark woods he heard 

 a mother's voice calling her lost child, — it was 

 his mother's voice calling to him. He answered, 

 as loud as he could, and when at last she ap- 

 peared in the opening, he ran to her. She had 

 given him up as lost, but her mother love urged 

 her to hunt and call. Her pleasure was great 

 as she caressed him. 



No more they ventured into the thick woods, 

 but remained with the herd. Nearby was an 

 alkali lick where they went nightly to sip the 

 brackish waters. White Patch had many com- 

 panions of his own age, and happy times they 

 had as they raced about among the herd. Often 

 he lost his mother, and called wildly until she 

 answered. Once he heard a booming sound not 

 far away, and they all ran through the woods 

 and over the hills, to get away from the terrible 



sound. They ran for miles, and White Patch 

 saw one of his playmates washed away and 

 drowned in a swollen mountain stream. In the 

 mad rush White Patch lost his mother. Each 

 little spotted fawn soon found its parent, and 

 finally he heard her voice and went to her. But 

 until dark, and all that night at intervals, the 

 poor, distracted mother whose baby was 

 drowned in the river, called and called in vain. 



As the weeks passed White Patch grew lusty 

 and strong. His spots had faded and gone, and 

 he could keep up with his mother in a race. 

 Her red coat had turned gray and he was be- 

 ginning to look like her. Although quite tall, 

 he was slenderly built, and his legs seemed very 

 long for his body. 



One never-to-be-forgotten morning he heard 

 a shrill bugle-call that frightened him very 

 much. Again he heard the strange, thrilling 

 sound, and a great bull elk walked out of the 

 woods, and passed among the cows and calves. 

 He feared, yet he admired that huge creature 

 with those massive antlers. In the herd there 

 was none other so noble as this new-comer. 



