388 THE DEER OF AMERICA. 
wild turkey. Then it was he learned to use the rifle, and com- 
menced the study of the habits of the various animals he hunted, 
as much for sustenance as for the sport. He learned all their 
hiding places and runways, and grew cunning in every mode of 
their pursuit, and has watched the changes which new condi- 
tions have introduced in the mode of hunting the different game. 
These were frequently men of marked intellect and culture, and 
their observations with tongue and pen have contributed mate- 
rially to the cause of science. 
The mode of hunting the deer upon the prairies, or rather in 
the prairie countries, is in many respects different from those 
practiced in mountainous and timbered countries. Where prairies 
predominate, as in Illinois, for instance, they are frequently dotted 
with isolated groves, and are intersected by skirts of timber along 
the borders of nearly all the water-courses which traverse the prai- 
ries, so soon as the streams become large enough to arrest a prairie 
fire. These groves are of various sizes, from a few acres to many 
miles, and the belts of timber along the streams vary from a few 
rods to miles in width. 
The real home of the deer is always in the timber, but he is 
fond of visiting the prairies, and indeed at favorable seasons 
spends much of his time there during the day at least, though 
as a general rule he repairs to the timber to pass the night, un- 
less indeed he is prowling about in the farmer’s maize or wheat 
fields, which he very much affects. Very often the deer may be 
seen leaving the forests for the prairies in the gray of the morn- 
ing and returning again in the dusk of the evening. During the 
day, too, they are often seen passing from one forest to another, 
whether the intervening prairie be one mile or ten miles wide, 
though generally where there are long stretches, they will stop 
and rest on the way. They find much of their aliment in the 
prairie grasses, but they will have their arboreous food if any be 
accessible, and this they usually take in the timber in the night 
time. Indeed they spend most of the day in repose, well se- 
creted in the high slough-grass, or if the flies and mosquitoes are 
troublesome they resort to the high prairies where the pests 
are likely to be kept down by a smart breeze ; and there conceal 
themselves in a clump of tall grass which may afford a partial 
shade and there enjoy their quiet siesta. All these conditions 
and habits the experienced sportsman has well and carefully 
studied, and having observed the time of the day, the season of 
the year, the state of the weather, the topography of the coun- 
