THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
Nearly all the best wapiti heads have been killed in Wyoming with a 
few from Colorado and Montana. The only notable head from Idaho is the 
one previously referred to as exhibited for sale at Salt Lake City. 
In former days the wapiti used to make a short migration from the 
higher grounds of the Bighorns and the main range of the Rockies down 
into the open foothills, or even into the “ Bad-lands,” so as to escape the 
deep snow. This movement also took place in Colorado and their more 
northerly and easterly habitats, but now those in the Yellowstone Park 
can only migrate a short distance down into Jackson’s Hole where the 
climatic conditions in winter are still very severe. In former times, even 
until 1885, immense bands of wapiti left the Bighorns and, passing south 
by way of the Powder, came into the cattle ranges, where thousands were 
annually killed by the cowboys and Indians. Both on their downward, in 
early winter, and upward movement in spring, they collected sometimes 
in thousands, bulls and cows herded together, and presented a wonderful 
sight to those who were fortunate enough to see them. My brother Geoffrey 
has seen several of these spring migrations near his ranch on the Powder 
between the years 1880 and 1885 and has estimated their numbers as very 
great. Even in 1885, when Mr Wallihan took his photographs in Colorado, 
there were still large numbers to be seen in spring if the main trails 
were struck; but the wapiti there became more or less extinct in this state 
earlier than in the north, as the laws passed to protect them came too late 
and were too feebly enforced. 
About the end of March the bulls get together in large parties and shed 
their horns. Unlike red deer, which often retain one antler for hours, or even 
a day or two longer than the other, wapiti shed both horns simultaneously, 
and as in the European species the new growth has already started to grow 
round and under the brow before the old horns are cast. 
Once up in the mountain forests constituting their summer range the 
main herds split up into small bands, several bulls often remaining to- 
gether. As the summer progresses these again separate, and it is common 
to find an old bull with a young one, who acts as a watch -dog, hiding away 
in some unfrequented forest or canon. The females, too, separate as the 
period of producing the young becomes due. When the calves are born 
they are hidden and regularly visited by the mother whilst being taught 
to squat suddenly in some thicket at the advent of danger. In fact, all 
the summer habits of wapiti seem to be exactly the same as red deer, 
and to describe one is to enumerate the habits of both species. The males 
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