Vo!. XC NOVEMBER, 1920 No. II 
WHITETAIL DEER IN NEW HAMPSHIRE 
AN INTIMATE STUDY OF THE HABITS OF THIS FAMOUS GAME ANIMAL BASED 
ON THE OBSERVATIONS OF A LOCAL HUNTER IN THE COUNTY OF^HILLSBORO 
By W. C. BARNABY 
I N considering the size and general ap- 
pearance of deer, his hoofs, horns, etc., 
one is apt to class him in a general 
sort of way with cattle, but from my 
own experience, I advise that when it 
comes to hunting deer, one forget cow 
and remember rabbit, for in his habits 
and actions the deer is just a sort of 
glorified rabbit. 
The deer we shall look for in New 
Hampshire is a sort of mouse-colored 
fellow. He really isn’t that color either, 
after you get him and look closely at 
him, but when you first see him getting 
under way or tearing past, he looks 
mouse color, at least to me, and the color 
blends well with that of small brush, 
the dead lower limbs of pine trees, the 
deep shadows of forest, and most any- 
thing else the deer may be using for a 
background at the time. In the spring- 
time, he sheds his horns and his coat and 
is bright red for the summer season, but 
by the time you get ready to hang him 
up in your shed, he has his war color 
on again. 
The under part of his tail is white, 
and when he runs it sticks up and looks 
white to the man behind. If you don’t 
watch yourself, you’ll pick out this fine 
obtrusive white for your target, and shoot 
over his back as he tips down with his 
forefeet on the ground and the white of 
bis tail four feet above the most vital 
places. They told me that the deer whips 
down his tail hiding the white when hit, 
but mine don’t, though I have seen one 
lower it when gathering himself to jump 
a bush or fence, and actually wave it 
from side to side as he tipped with the 
vital parts below it. 
Mr. Deer is fairly regular in his hab- 
its. In the morning early, how early I 
am not prepared to say, but very early, 
probably about as the first grayness 
shows in the east, he arises from his 
downy (?) bed and fares forth for 
breakfast. If the locality where ne 
ranges sounds and smells perfectly safe 
and secure to him, he may lie on 
a little hillock or under a hemlock in the 
swamp where he ate his supper, but if 
there is any uneasiness in his subcon- 
sciousness, and if he isn’t too tired, he 
will climb a hill after supper and take 
his rest somewhere on the hill, probably 
not on the top, but somewhere on the 
hillside with the breeze coming over the 
top to bring scents to his nostrils and 
sounds to his ears, and with a fairly 
clear view for his eyes into the valley or 
along the slope below. Stormy weather 
usually finds him doing his sleeping un- 
der an evergreen tree, usually a hemlock, 
but sometimes pines with thick tops, and 
always with a clear view to leeward. 
1 
Testing the wind 
U PON arising in the morning, he pro- 
ceeds immediately to the matter of 
breakfast, or on bare ground, a 
drink may come first. He feeds, or at 
least meanders around and does some 
feeding, until the locality where he may 
be gets garish from the light of day, 
when he turns in for another snooze, or 
just lies down to chew his cud and rumi- 
nate. In cloudy weather, he stays up 
longer, lying down about 9 or 10 A. M. 
For this siesta, he chooses an entirely 
different location. Very seldom does he 
lie twice in the same spot, except after 
long intervals. If the weather is rather 
cold and the skies clear, his day bed will 
be in a place sheltered from the wind 
and in the full light of the sun. If he 
feels confidence in his surroundings, this 
place is very apt to be right in his feed- 
ing ground, on the sunny side of a little 
knoll and near the crown of it. The 
prevailing wind being northwest in the 
hunting season and the morning sun be- 
ing in the southeast, his bed is usually 
on the southeast side of something. 
He does not favor the lee side of large 
rocks or uprooted trees, or anything that 
does not permit the breeze with its tell- 
tale odors to seep through. He prefers 
the leeward side of pines that grow 
branches close to the ground, or thick 
clumps of tall laurel or other dense 
brush, and these on the southeast slope 
of a hill in the A. M., and the south side 
in the P. M., and if he is uneasy, he 
likes the hill rather sizeable with quite 
a stretch of country always under his 
immediate cognizance, though he him- 
self is always screened from distant 
view in any direction while lying down, 
and from the windward side whether ly- 
ing down, standing, or running straight 
away. If one approaches him directly 
from the windward, he is gone before 
one knows anything about it, and like- 
wise if one approaches on his track, 
no matter from which direction. 
A real foxy deer will put a fish-hook 
in his track before lying down so that 
one must pass not only in his view but 
also to windward of him in approaching 
via his track. An apparently indefinite 
zig-zag course will sometimes bring one 
near enough to see the first jump, but 
it must be skilfully executed and the 
deer not too nervous; this method takes 
much time and is usually barren of defi- 
nite results. In a flank approach, one 
sometimes gets near enough to see a flash 
of tail or hear a thump of hoofs, but 
usually the deer just sneaks away from 
his bed, using his windward screen as 
a cover. If his nest seems secure to 
him and it is not about time for him to 
move anyway, he will stick pretty tight 
no matter what approaches, so long as 
it is not following directly on his track. 
Contents Copyrighted, 1920, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
