DESERT ANIMALS 



165 



— bulges out almost like the end of an egg — 

 and if there were corners on the desert mesas 

 I' believe that eye could see around them. He 

 cannot be approached in any direction without 

 seeing what is going on ; but he may be still- 

 hunted and shot from behind crag or cover. 



His curiosity is usually the death of him, be- 

 cause he will persist in standing still and look- 

 ing at things ; but his senses almost always give 

 him fair warning. His nose and ears are just 

 as acute as his eyes. And how he can run ! 

 His legs seem to open and shut like the blades 

 of a pocket-knife, so leisurely, so apparently 

 effortless. But how they do take him over the 

 ground ! With one leg shot from under him 

 he runs pretty nearly as fast as before. A 

 tougher, more wiry, more beautiful animal was 

 never created. Perhaps that is the reason why 

 every man^s hand has been raised against him 

 until now his breed is almost extinct. He was 

 well fitted to survive on the desert mesas and 

 the upland plains — a fine type of swiftness and 

 endurance — but Nature in her economy never 

 reckoned with the magazine rifle nor the greed 

 of the individual who calls himself a sports- 

 man. 



The mule-deer with his large ears, long muz- 



His nose 

 mid ears. 



His 

 swiftness. 



