82 HOOFED ANIMALS 
osity and stare at the hunter for that fatal ten seconds which 
so often ends with a ringing “bang” and a fatal bullet. 
But not so the White-Tail. Time after time the trailing 
still-hunter, stealing forward ever so cautiously, sees ahead 
of him and far beyond fair rifle shot a sudden flash of white, 
a pillar of cloud swaying from side to side between the tree- 
trunks, and the vanishing point of a scurrying White-Tail. 
This creature knows right well that as a discourager of cer- 
vine curiosity nothing in the world equals a breech-loading 
rifle. When he hears behind him a rustle of dry leaves or 
the snap of a twig, nothing else is so dear to him as space, 
judiciously distributed between himself and his pursuer. I 
have sometimes made so bold as to consider myself a fairly 
good deer-stalker; but I have still-hunted White-Tailed Deer 
in November, on dry leaves and without snow, when for days 
and days together I found it utterly impossible to come within 
fair rifle shot of a buck worth having. At such times a light 
snow means a fair chance, and properly evens up the game. 
During the summer, while the antlers are in the velvet, 
the coat of this species is short, thin and of a bright sandy 
color often called “red.” In Canada the Virginia Deer is 
frequently called the “Red Deer’; but this is a mischievous 
misnomer, for its use always suggests the red deer of Europe. 
The red coat is worn about three months, say from May 1 
to August 1, and then it rapidly gives place to the beautiful 
mottled brown-gray suit, so long and thick that the owner 
looks like quite a different creature, and is fitted to withstana 
the severest winter weather. 
The White-Tailed Deer is one of the most persistent 
