COURTING HABITS OF WHITETAIL 
and we have at night heard him emitting a shrill whistling sound, not un- 
like that of the chamois of the Alps, that could be heard at the distance of 
half a mile. The keen sense of smell the deer possess enables them to 
follow each other’s tracks. We have observed them smelling on the ground, 
and thus following each other’s trail for miles.” 
As in the case of other deer, the bucks and does separate in 
summer, the former nursing the velvet-covered horns, the doe 
hiding away in some secret place and dropping her two fawns 
(spotted) as early as April in the Carolinas, but not until a 
month or so later in the North. The mating season occurs in 
the late fall, and the manner of seeking the does is vividly por- 
trayed by Roosevelt *°:— 
‘‘At the beginning of the rut the does flee from the bucks, which follow 
them by scent at full speed. The whitetail buck rarely tries to form a 
herd of does, though he will sometimes gather two or three. Fighting 
The mere fact that his tactics necessitate a long and arduous Bucks. 
chase after each individual doe prevents his organizing herds as the wapiti 
‘bull does. Sometimes two or three bucks will be found strung out one 
behind the other, following the same doe. The bucks wage desperate 
battle among themselves during this season, coming together with a clash, 
and then pushing and straining for an hour or two at a time, with their 
mouths open, until the weakest gives way. As soon as one abandons the 
fight he flees with all possible speed, and usually escapes unscathed. While 
head to head, there is no opportunity for a disabling thrust; but if, in the 
effort to retreat, the beaten buck gets caught, he may be killed. Owing to 
the character of the antlers whitetail bucks are peculiarly apt to get them 
interlocked in such a fight, and if the efforts of the two beasts fail to 
disentangle them, both ultimately perish by starvation. I have several 
times come across a pair of skulls with interlocked antlers. The same 
thing occurs, though far less frequently, to the mule deer and even the 
wapiti.” 
In the far West these deer stay in the brushy river bottoms 
among the foothills. They are rarely seen out in the open or 
high up the mountain slopes; and hence many call them “ willow 
deer.”’ They are hunted in a variety of ways, good and bad; 
and the rank of this chase as a sport depends upon the country, 
329 
