TEXAS NATURE OBSERVATIONS AND REMINISCENCES. 



289 



Perished on the Prairie Plains in Deadly Combat 



The original illustration herein 

 of two deer head skeletons is an 

 interesting one, representing the 

 remnants of two large bucks that 

 died in deadly combat with each 

 other. Years after, these locked 

 head skeletons were found ac- 



hy the writer. The fine, large 

 horns were so intimately clinched 

 together that it was absolutely 

 impossible by several hands, to 

 move either horns a hairbreadth, 

 as if jammed together 'with a 

 sledge hammer! The head parts 



Locked Horks op Texas Deer 



ejdentally by a Texas farmer while 

 Igunding up some cattle in his 

 large pasture in a remote thicket 

 of chaparral and cactus jungle. 

 Both locked heads were taken to 

 the farm house where -the view 

 seen in these sketches was taken 



must have laid many years on the 

 prairie as they were found bare 

 of all skin coverings and thor- 

 oughly bleached by the sun. 



Hunters or farm hands occa- 

 sionally come across such two 

 locked combatants when the deer 



