2(12 FOUR-FOOrED AMERICANS 



plain, slinking along cautionsly behind such scant shel- 

 ter as tl]c\' can find, or lying tiat on the ground if no 

 cover offers. In the distance a bunch of Antelope are 

 feeding, their pronged horns showing them to be chiefly 

 males, who would run too swiftly and fight too bravely 

 if the single pair of Coyotes should follow them. 



"AVliile the Coyotes are planning and plotting, let 

 us cross the plain and look at these Antelopes, who 

 were once, next to the Buffalo, the most plentiful of 

 our big game animals, even now holding out bravely 

 against great persecution, which if it cannot be stopped 

 will, in another ten years, surely drive them out of 

 existence. 



" The Buffalo may thiive for a time in confinement, 

 but tlie Antelope does not, for he misses the Buffalo 

 grass of his native jDlains. 



" The Pronghorn is a compact animal, with more the 

 shape of a Bighorn than of his cousin the Deer. He 

 measures three feet to the shoulder, has a short body, 

 and is very easy to identify, first by the black horns 

 with dou))Ic prongs that grow just above and between 

 the large, deep brown eyes, next Ijy the neck bands of 

 brown and vv^hite, then by the white rump, the straw- 

 like hair of the back being dun color, like the coat of 

 a .lersey cow. The eyes of the Antelope are of won- 

 derful size and brilliancy, and they are among the 

 keenest eyed of our fourfoots. The doe (as the female 

 is usually called in the Deer family) does not wear 

 horns. 



" The twin horns of the little male fawns begin to 

 grow when they are four months old, and are shed in 

 midwinter or early spring, but the old bucks usually 



