294 THE DEER OF AMERICA. 
limp as a wet rag, the head and limbs hanging down, without 
the least muscular action, the bright eye fairly sparkling all the 
time. The first I met really deceived me, for I thought it had 
met with some accident by which it was completely paralyzed, 
and returned the next day expecting to find it dead. It was 
gone, and soon after I found it following its dam as sprightly as 
possible. Last spring I found one, picked it up, and carried it 
some distance and laid it down, and watched for some time from 
a distance, but not the least sign of life would it manifest, save 
only in the bright eye. 
The Elk’s fawn follows its dam much sooner than most of the 
other deer. At most it is left in seclusion but a day or two, 
when the mother takes it in immediate charge, and they mingle 
with the herd.- In this regard the habit of Wapiti differs from 
that of the smaller deer, who keep their young secluded for 
several weeks. 
The result of my experiments shows that the confinement of 
this deer in parks of even considerable extent, impairs its repro- 
ductive powers. This result, I think, is attributable to both 
sexes. On the part of the female the inclination to breed seems 
much diminished, and this is especially so with the young ones. 
‘In the wild state they breed at two years old, while in my 
grounds I do not think one has ever bred till after she was four 
years old, and scarcely more than half of the older females may 
be expected to produce young. This, however, may be attrib- 
uted to the male. With him the inclination to breed seems to be 
unimpaired, at least it is strong enough, but the limited range 
gives the monarch such an opportunity to indulge his propensity 
to appropriate all the does to himself, and there is such a constant 
effort required to keep them together, when the number is con- 
siderable, besides the continual worry occasioned by a dozen or fif- 
teen other large bucks, some of which, at least, intrude upon his 
privacy, and seem to take delight in teasing him, and provoking 
him to paroxysms of ungovernable rage, that his vital powers 
are soon impaired, and his capacity for reproduction, if not de- 
stroyed, is greatly reduced. This was especially manifest with 
the “Sultan,” who reigned supreme the longest in my grounds, 
and now may be seen as a mounted specimen in the Royal Museum 
at Christiana, Norway. At first his progeny were reasonably 
numerous, but during the last three years of his life they gradu- 
ally diminished from a dozen down to a single fawn in 1875, with 
about twenty-five females, more than half of which had pre- 
