468 DEER AND DEER-HUNTING IN TEXAS. 
is rearing her young, if she is surprised near the fawn, and 
yet if the danger be not very imminent, she will stand and 
“blow,” occasionally raising a forefoot and stamping with it 
on the ground. The bucks also blow, but less frequently. 
If my memory does not deceive me I think I have heard 
the hunters speak of other sounds made by deer,—a faint 
call of the mother to the fawn, and the reciprocal ery of the 
young. There may be also a sexual call. I think I have 
heard such an one spoken of, as uttered at the time when the 
males seek the females. 
The hair is shed twice in the year. The summer-coat is 
red; not exactly the color of a red cow nor that of a bay 
horse, yet not very unlike either. The fawn is similar in 
color, with two rows of white spots, and scattering ones on — 
each side, which it retains often long after the winter-coat 18 
assumed. This is called the blue. It is rather an ashy-g"3}» _ 
or near a slate-color. The hairs are longer, much closer, 
whitish, except the tips which are dark, or ringed with 
white and dark spaces. 
It is a current belief that deer feed principally on gasè — 
This is far from being correct. They love what is tender and : 
juicy. They resort always to a recent burn, when grass and : 
weeds are just shooting again and are soft; then abandon it 
for a newer one, so soon as the plants have become hard or 
tough. If the track of deer be followed, the grass will never - 
be found cropped by the mouthful, as it is eaten ye 
cows, and sheep. Deer select here only a blade oF ete 
there a tender twig or leaf; but they are fond of fruits 0 : 
almost every kind. In early spring they visit the se 4 
which the May-haw grows, the fruit of which is juicy WO 
the flavor of the apple, though too, sour. Later they resort 
huckleberry bushes, grape-vines, and persimmon pees 
finally to the oaks. All kinds of acorns, but especially : w 
of the annual trees or sweet acorns, are greedily eaten DY — 
them; also chinquapins: and where chestnuts 
found together, doubtless the former yield food to the latter 


