PRONGHORN OF THE PLAINS 187 
sheep: In the Yellowstone and the Wind Cave 
National Parks are numbers of antelope. Many 
of these have readjusted themselves to the 
friendly conditions and have lost most of their 
nervousness and fear of man. 
They have a bump of curiosity. I paused 
one afternoon to talk to a homesteader on the 
prairie. He was fencing, and presently com- 
menced stretching a line of barbed wire. The 
penetrating squeaks of the wire reached the 
ears of several unseen antelope and appealed 
to their curiosity. They came close, about 
the distance from third to home plate. 
Well might they have shown concern at 
barbed wire! It has wrought terrific destruction 
to the species. 
A generation or so ago it appears to have been 
easy for the hunter by displaying a red flag 
or some partly concealed moving object to 
rouse antelope curiosity and to lure numbers. 
I have repeatedly seen this trick tried and a 
few times I have patiently endeavoured with 
this appeal to bring a flock within range of my 
double-barrelled field glass, but I didn’t succeed. 
They promptly went over the horizon. They 
are curious still, but have become wiser. 
I suppose it will never do to reach final con- 
clusions concerning what an animal will do under 
new conditions. After a few years of intimate 
