The Mule-deer 37 



a domestic animal which habitually tried the 

 same experiment. 



In other habits also the deer vary widely in 

 different localities. For instance, there is an 

 absolute contrast as regards their migratory habits 

 between the mule-deer, which live in the Bad 

 Lands along the Little Missouri, and those which 

 live in northwestern Colorado; and this differ- 

 ence is characteristic generally of the deer which 

 in the summer dwell in the high mountains, as 

 contrasted with those which bear and rear their 

 young in the low, broken, hill-country. Along 

 the Little Missouri there was no regular or 

 clearly defined migration of the mule-deer in a 

 mass. Some individual, or groups of individuals, 

 shifted their quarters for a few miles, so that in 

 the spring, for instance, a particular district of a 

 few square miles, in which they had been abun- 

 dant before, might be wholly without them. 

 But there were other districts which happened 

 to afford at all times sufficient food and shelter, 

 in which they were to be found the year round ; 

 and the animals did not band and migrate as 

 the prongbucks did in the same region. In the 

 immediate neighborhood of my ranch there were 

 groups of high hills containing springs of water, 

 good grass, and an abundance of cedar, ash, and 

 all kinds of brush in which mule-deer were per- 

 manent residents. There were big dry creeks. 



