236 FAMILIAR LIFE IN" FIELD AND FOREST. 



pasture bars. A glance at a timid deer shows that 

 all his faculties are on the alert : the head is erect, 

 the broad ears are turned in the direction of danger, 

 the ejes intently peer at a single leaf that waggles 

 in a passing zephyr, the nostrils are distended and in 

 motion, ^^ and an uneasy fore foot is poised 

 for a run. When the animal is 

 at last satisfied that 



f^ 



Running Deer (from a photograph). 



his safety is threatened, the spindlelike legs are 



raised, there are a few graceful bounds rather than 

 steps over the intervening ferns and lichen-covered 

 stones, and the creature is gone. But in a swift run 

 he covers the ground like an india-rubber ball, touch- 

 ing it only at every sixteen feet maybe. 



The beautiful antlers of the deer are shed and re- 

 newed each year — the so-called " spike horn," or ant- 

 lers without any branches, belong to an animal about 



