STATUS OP THE PEONGHORNED ANTELOPE, 1922-1924 19 
by Smith Riley, in charge of reservations, Bureau of Biological Survey, and 
found the boys had 7 antelope fawns in one of the rooms of the house. They 
were awkward-looking things, all legs and ears. 
LOCATING! AND CAPTURING FAWNS 
Our method of capturing the fawns was to ride out on the range early in 
the morning, keeping ourselves from view and using powerful field glasses in 
looking at the scattered antelope until we discovered a female that showed 
she had dropped her fawns. Then it was a matter of keeping her in view 
until she went to feed her young, which she had hidden out, generally one in 
a place, possibly 75 to 100 yards apart [PI. II, fig. 1.] Along about 8.30 to 10 
in the morning she would go to water, then gradually feed back toward her 
fawns, never looking toward them but feeding as unconcernedly as if she were 
merely getting her morning's breakfast. Suddenly you would see a little 
speck raise up and the mother squat so that it could nurse. She would 
allow it to suckle a few minutes and then go on, the fawn following her until 
she picked up the twin. Then the same process would be repeated. The 
mother then would feed about possibly 20 minutes or a half hour, accompanied 
by the fawns, when one of them would drop down and she would lead the 
other about 75 to 100 yards and leave it also lying down. One particular doe 
that I was watching stopped suddenly and one of the fawns started running 
at right angles from the direction the mother was going, and when about 50 
yards away dropped down as if it had been shot. The mother fed gradually 
on, leaving it there. 
After the mother had left the immediate neighborhood of the hidden fawns 
we took particular care to sight up with objects so we could ride to the 
fa\\Tis. They were generally lying in the sun on the lava rocks with no 
shade to protect them, their heads stretched out on the ground, ears lying 
flat on their heads, and very difficult to see. They would allow us to walk 
up almost beside them before they would make a move. Then they would 
jump up and develop a wonderful burst of speed for about 30 or 40 yards, 
when their legs would begin to tangle up and they would fall down. I w^as 
successful in capturing two of them one morning, and was in doubt as to 
which of us was the most exhausted by the race when we both fell at the end. 
As soon as the young were captured they were placed in a grain sack with 
a hole cut in the side about 4 inches from the bottom, just large enough for 
the head to be put out. [See PI. II, fig. 2.] One was hung on each side of the 
5<addle horse and thus carried to camp, where they were kept until a suflicient 
number were caught to warrant a trip to the i>ermanent inclosure at the ranch. 
(PI. Ill, fig. 1.) 
The mothers are very suspicious and will not go near the fawns if they 
can see or scent a person ; therefore much caution must be exercised in selecting 
a hiding place when watching to locate the young. 
FEEDING ON THE BOTTLE 
The next most important thing is food for the young. We found that to 
begin with, the best ration was rich cow's milk, about two-thirds of a pint 
at a feeding, heated to a little more than the body temperature and fed 
from a bottle through a nipple known as a lamb's nipple. Great care must 
be exercised not to overfeed. As the fawns all look alike, when you get a 
lot of them together it is necessary as soon as each one is fed to separate it 
from the others. Overfeeding will probably cause scours, which are difficult 
to handle. 
In the raising of our 40 kids we had only one that developed a real case 
of scours. While we brought it through by a liberal dose of lime water and 
