174 American Deer 



which side their noses sufficiently protect them. During the summer they 

 associate in small bands ; a doe with several of her fawns of different years 

 in one group, and two or three old bucks with a young buck, which acts 

 as sentinel, in another, while the medium-sized bucks are often quite alone. 

 At the end of October, or as soon as their antlers are clean, the bucks begin 

 to "round up" the does; and make no objection to the presence of two- 

 year, and even three-year-old, male deer in the harem, for I have killed a 

 master-buck and a three-year-old out of the same party. Although I have 

 seen a buck with does as early as 1 8th of October, from the first to the 15th 

 of November is usual for the commencement of the pairing-season, when 

 the old bucks grunt like a fallow deer ; and I have seen a buck followed 

 by several does walk to the edge of a " bad-land " point, and challenge 

 repeatedly across the prairie in the still air. 



The bucks do not appear to be able to keep many does, sixteen, to the 

 best of my recollection, being the most I have seen with one buck, while 

 eleven or twelve is a more common number ; nor do they appear to suffer 

 much from the effect of the rut, as immediately after they are more wary 

 and run greater distances than before. The duration of the pairing-season 

 is about six weeks. They now collect into small parties, from two to a 

 dozen, but the idea that they retire singly into solitude to shed their antlers 

 is, in my opinion, a fallacy. 



\1 though the bucks are pugnacious among themselves during the 

 pairing-season, I have never known of an injury being inflicted by an 

 antler-thrust, but have twice come across cases of blindness from cataract. 

 The old bucks will stand at bay when severely wounded, but never in my 

 experience act upon the aggressive towards a man on foot, so long as he 

 keeps a few yards off, although a buck will wheel and charge a horseman 

 who is pressing it too closely. The does, which drop their spotted fawns 

 in May, and generally give birth to twins, are always watchful ; and 

 when a party of deer are resting, the long ears of the recumbent does move 

 backwards and forwards with irregular jerks, one of them constituting her- 

 self a sentinel, and rising at intervals to listen on all sides before again lying 

 down. Mule-deer feed chiefly on grass, and keep their condition in spite 

 of the severe winters, as they can paw away the snow like horses, 

 supplementing their diet with cedar and buffalo berries, which are very 

 plentiful. Should the depth of snow be excessive, as a last resource they 



