HABIT AND DOMESTICATION. 299 
tiously venture to take corn from my hand, a familiarity never 
indulged in by a Virginia deer raised by its mother. Ever after 
they were almost as tame as the Virginia deer raised by hand, 
ever ready to come to my call and take food from my hand when 
offered, and follow me all over the grounds, being sure of getting 
something to encourage them, — still they would never allow me 
to handle them, as their dam or sire did who were raised by 
hand, evidently thinking it a great condescension if they al- 
lowed me to rub their faces a little. How much I am indebted 
for this familiarity to the short confinement when they were very 
young, it is impossible to say, but I think not very much, for they 
seemed as wild immediately after they were let out as Virginia 
fawns of the same age, and so continued till in the fall, when they 
followed their mother up and began to get feed. The Virginia 
fawns that follow up in the same way soon learn what shelled 
corn is, and in the course of the winter become so emboldened as. 
to pick it up within ten feet of the keeper, who feeds them 
every day. All the deer, as well as the flock of wild turkeys, 
the sand-hill cranes, and the wild geese, and Southdown sheep in 
my grounds, soon learn what the rattling of the corn-sheller 
means, and it is one of the pleasantest sights I have among my 
pets, to see all start at this sound and make a rush for the feed- 
ing grounds where all eat together pretty harmoniously, the 
wildest of each always showing a little suspicion and keeping 
well on the outer borders. 
THE BLACK-TAILED DEER. 
The male of the Columbia Black-tailed Deer is only less wicked 
than I have reason to believe the fully adult mule deer, when 
he has been raised by hand. How he would behave if raised by 
his dam in the park I cannot say. I have never observed any 
vicious manifestations by the adult does, as is the case with the 
mule does. 
The first of C. Columbianus which I ever had I procured on 
the Cowlitz River in Washington Territory, in 1870. The male 
was then one year old and the female two years old. They stood 
the journey of three thousand miles by sea and land well, and 
arrived in fine condition. Both had been brought up by hand, 
but the doe had never been subjected to the halter, and for a 
time gave me some trouble in transferring her from one convey- 
ance to another, but by the time she got through she was well 
halter- broken. 
