CARIACUS VIRGINIANUS. 



109 



or for the refreshing effects of the bath, is an open question, and for 

 my part I incline to the latter view. Mr. E. L. Sheppard tells me 

 that he has on two occasions seen Deer enter the water and immerse 

 themselves until almost the entire body disappeared from view, 

 and this when not " skulking," or endeavoring to elude an 

 enemy. The Rev. John Bachman once witnessed this diversion and 

 described it in these words : "We recollect an occasion, when on sit- 

 ting down to rest on the margin of the Santee river, we observed a 

 pair of anders on the surface of the water near an old tree, not ten 

 steps from us. The half-closed eye of the buck was upon us; we 

 were without a gun. and he was. therefore, safe from any injury we 

 could inflict upon him. Anxious to observe the cunning he would 

 display, we turned our eyes another way, and commenced a careless 

 whistle, as if for our own amusement, walking gradually towards him 

 in a circuitous route, until we arrived within a few feet of him. He 

 had now sunk so deep in the water that an inch only of his nose, and 

 slight portions of his prongs were seen above the surface. We again 

 sat down on the bank for some minutes, pretending to read a book. 

 At length we suddenly directed our eyes towards him, and raised our 

 hand, when he rushed to the shore, and dashed through the rattling 

 canebrake in rapid style."'-' 



Early in September our Deer begin to desert the water courses, 

 and before cold weather sets in there is a marked decrease in their 

 numbers in the localities which a short time previously were their 

 favorite feeding grounds. The reason is apparent : the marsh 

 grasses have matured and are now dry; the tender aquatic plants" 

 near shore have mostly withered and decayed; and the lily-pads and 

 pickerel weed, cut dovvn by September frosts, no longer remain to 

 tempt their appetites. They retire, therefore, to the higher ground 

 in the forest, which still affords them abundant subsistence.! 



* Quadrupeds of North America, vol. II, 1S51, p. 223. 



f The largest and ])est conditioned Deer I ever saw was a magnificent buck that Dr. F. 11. 

 Hoadley shot at Big Moose Lake, October 31. 18S1. Its stomach was full, containing a quantity of 



