HABIT AND DOMESTICATION. 297 
ment only. I have once noticed something like this in a common 
deer, but at the best it was the faintest sort of a play, if indeed 
that was its meaning. And this pestering of the Mule Deer 
was the only amusement I have seen the diminutive species in- 
dulge in. But the Mule Deer not only amuses itself in the way 
described but loves to have me join him in a little sham fight, 
and if I handle him a little roughly, or try to throw him down 
when he rears up and places his feet on my shoulders, he will re- 
cover and jump sideways and backwards twisting himself into 
grotesque attitudes, though he does this in an awkward way. I 
have not observed this disposition to play after the animal is two 
or three years old, and the male seems more inclined to it than 
the female. I elsewhere mention that he sometimes appears to be- 
come very appreciative of his own importance, when he will strut 
around, his tail elevated to a vertical position, as is observed 
with the male goat. 
Altogether there is little to admire in the disposition of the 
Mule Deer beyond his taste for amusement as above described. 
The viciousness of the adult male during the rutting season ex- 
ceeds that of any of the others, in my grounds, at least, which 
is far from commending him as a familiar pet. This may arise 
from the fact that they have not the natural fear of man of the 
Virginia deer, for, as we shall see, when the young are raised by 
their dams in the park they become much more tame than the 
others, indeed nearly as much so as if raised by hand. 
The Mule Deer manifests by far the most salacious disposition 
of any of the deer which I have had an opportunity of closely 
studying. 
My efforts to domesticate the Mule Deer and the Columbia 
Deer have been practical failures. For the last eight years I 
have with great care and at considerable expense, experimented 
with both these species, and have brought many individuals from 
great distances, and have studied their wants and cared for them 
with unwearied pains, but now all are dead. The last died but a 
few weeks since. My failures, however, by no means assure us 
that they may not sustain the burden of domestication in coun- 
tries where they live and prosper in a wild state. Both are na- 
tives of the far West. The Mule Deer I brought from Utah 
and Nevada, distances from fifteen hundred to two thousand 
miles, and the Columbia Deer from Washington Territory and 
Oregon, say three thousand miles away. No wild Mule Deer 
