When a deer is stalked 
and sees something of 
which he is afraid he gen- 
erally utters a snort of 
alarm, and then away he 
goes, his white tail held 
straight up in the air, 
showing clearly as he 
bounds high over the 
bushes. If you have fired 
at him and he goes off with his tail down you may be sure he is 
badly wounded. I have shot at deer at long range and seen them: 
go away without raising their tails, but could find no signs of blood 
along the trail; yet upon following it for a short distance the deer 
would be found quite dead. Oftentimes a deer will bleed badly from 
a comparatively slight wound, and again be seriously wounded 
and bleed externally but 
-- little. 
The Florida Deer is 
smaller and varies slightly 
in color from the true C. 
virgtnianus. A full- 
grown buck will often not 
weigh over 110 pounds, 
although I have killed 
them considerably larger, 
and probably they occa- 
sionally (though rarely) 
approach in size their 
Northern relation. In 
Florida as elsewhere the 
bucks drop their antlers 
every year, usually about 
February. The rutting 
season occurs in Septem- 
