284 THE DEER OF AMERICA. 
is the females that rush at the fence to get at the dog on the 
opposite side, while the males stand back and treat the matter 
with apparent indifference. If a dog gets into the park and first 
meets a band of buck Elk, they will take fright and break away 
towards the does ; but, when he falls in with even a single doe, 
the white patch upon the rump rises up immediately ; her eyes 
flash with rage, and, without an instant’s hesitation, she pitches 
at him, while the bucks will fall in the rear, and perhaps stop or 
follow up, rather than join in the chase. Indeed, I am obliged 
to say that the buck Elk is not only extremely selfish and tyran- 
nical, but, as is usual with tyrants, is.an arrant coward. He 
may be ferocious, but not courageous. Neither in the wild or 
the domestic state will he make an effort to protect or defend 
either the young or the female, but seems willing to sacrifice 
them all for his own safety. , 
Individuals differ very much in their dispositions, some being 
much more vicious than others, or rather some being naturally 
very wicked, while a large majority show no such disposition. 
I have had more than one hundred in my grounds altogether, 
and yet I never had but two that were positively.wicked. These 
reached as near the point of total depravity during the rutting 
season as I think it possible for a brute to do. Both these 
animals J purchased with four does. They were probably raised 
by hand, which, as we shall see, tends to divest all the deer fam- 
ily of their natural fear of man, which allows their native vicious- 
ness to manifest itself, which is very apt to happen, at least with 
the males, during the rut. This, no doubt, tended to aggravate 
the innate wickedness of these Elk, but is quite insufficient to 
explain it all. I had previously had a very fine specimen, five 
years old, which had not only been brought up by hand, but 
kept in a show for a long time, and, although during the rut he 
would make ugly faces, utter the threatening squeal, and make 
threatening gestures, especially to strangers, he never made an 
assaulé upon any one, and not only his keeper but strangers 
were in the habit of going through the park at all seasons. 
The fall after he was three years old, having returned home 
after a short absence, I went into the park and met the Elk 
which proved to be so wicked. During my absence, he had shed 
the velvet from his antlers, which were now well polished. As 
soon as he saw me he walked towards me in a confident and 
rather impudent way. I picked up a hickory club I found near, 
and stepped behind a small tree, which he directly straddled 
