229 THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 
ing of the young and immature males. By some sportsmen 
it is believed that through long-continued killing of the finest 
and largest males, the red deer of Europe have been growing 
smaller; but on that point I am not prepared to offer evidence. 
In regard to the in-breeding of the elk herds in large open 
parks and preserves throughout North America, there are 
positively no ill effects to fear. Wild animals that are closely 
confined, generation after generation, are bound to deteriorate 
physically; but with healthy wild animals living in large open 
ranges, feeding and breeding naturally, the in-breeding that 
occurs produces no deterioration. 
Wurtte-Tartep Deer.—In “Our Vanishing Wild Life” I 
have noted the quick and thorough success with which the 
white-tailed deer has been brought back in Vermont, Massa- 
chusetts, Connecticut and southern New York. 
No state having waste lands covered with brush or tim- 
ber need be without the ubiquitous white-tailed deer. Give 
them a semblance of a fair show, and they will live and breed 
with surprising fecundity and persistence. If you start a 
park herd with ten does, soon you will have more deer than 
you will know how to dispose of, unless you market them 
under a Bayne law, duly tagged by the state. In close con- 
finement this species fares rather poorly. In large preserves 
it does well, but during the rutting season the bucks are to 
be dreaded; and those that develop aggressive traits should 
be shot and marketed. This is the only way in which the 
deer parks of England are kept safe for unarmed people. 
At this date deer-hunting is not permitted at any time in 
Indiana, [linois, Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas—where there 
