
















DEER AND DEER-HUNTING IN TEXAS. 471 
a antlers dried and shrunk, room was made for a little move- 
ment, and they could then be unlocked. 
_ At the close of summer the does have become lean, —the 
— effect of rearing the fawn, — while the bucks are in prime 
= condition, Then begins the running season, when the bucks 
_ grow careless, or fearless, or both, and fall an easy prey to 
a the hunter. The does, too, seem less wary, or are more in- 
a tent on feeding. They improve rapidly in condition, espe- 
dally if mast is plentiful, becoming before midwinter fully 
a fat. The bucks, in their turn, become lean and big-necked, 
and the flesh acquires a rank taste, so as to be quite unfit for 
a -food except under the influence of extreme hunger. 
The deer’s three senses, — sight, hearing and smell, —are 
1 neither of them, by itself, quite adequate to advise him of 
i. ger. A noise excites his attention and calls in vision to 
discover the cause, yet both together may not insure his 
_ ‘Safety, if danger be near. The noise may be made by the 
2 leaping of a Squirrel or the scratching of a bird among the 
? leaves; or, it may be any other of the thousand notes that 
3 listener can hear in the silent woods. If alarmed by any 
- of these, he recovers confidence when apprized of the cause. 
The sense of vision seems to be imperfect in this particu- 
ar; it takes no cognizance of form and little of color, unless 
4 the form and color be those which come most naturally 
7 Within the sphere of its recognition, — those of its own spe- 
“es. ‘It is motion that draws its attention. When sitting 
qute still a deer has approached within a few feet of me, 
“walked quietly away again, unaware, although I was in 
plain view all the time, that it, was so close to one who might 
“Wve been its enemy. But when a deer smells danger, it 
needs not to look nor to listen. Hence, the attempt to ap- 
Proach him is useless when the wind is blowing from the 
hunter towards him. But this sense is the least valuable 
he is to windward. Acting, then, on his knowledge 
