100 CERVID^. 



of rubbing his neck against a tree — an occupation 

 apparently so agreeable and engrossing that the stalker 

 steals a hundred yards nearer without giving any alarm. 

 Though there is not a moment to lose, and silence and 

 circumspection are momentarily more necessary, he is 

 still too far off to hazard a shot, and to increase the 

 difficulty, he has probably got into such a labyrinth of 

 rotten sticks and fallen trees, that the possibility of 

 getting nearer without discovery seems hopeless. 



Strange as it may appear, it is not on the eye or 

 head of the feeding deer that the steady gaze of the 

 stalker is fixed, but on its tail. If that is jerked with 

 a quick nervous shake, he crouches lower, warned that 

 the animal is about to raise its head. If after a short 

 gaze round, it again twitches the tail, he prepares to 

 move on, knowing the animal will return to its food. 

 Then seizing the opportunity, with one or two swift 

 and silent strides, he is safely behind a giant trunk, 

 within easier range of his object. But though he has 

 not made the slightest appreciable noise, and the little 

 wind moving is in his favour, so acute are the deer's 

 senses of smell and hearing that it suddenly lifts its 

 head erect, and sniffing the air suspiciously, begins to 

 move off 



Simultaneously with the sudden crack of the rifle it 

 gives a convulsive leap, and, throwing up clouds of 



