THE MULE AND WHITE-TAILED DEER 
and is off at once. I once photographed a big caribou bull lying dozing 
on an open hillside, at a distance of four paces. It took me over an hour 
to do that last hundred yards of the stalk, so slowly did I creep amongst 
the rocks and bilberry bushes, but I succeeded by simply moving 
like a snail as the animal dozed in the sun. The last twenty yards of 
the stalk was by far the most difficult, because the deer clearly heard 
the buttons on my waistcoat scraping on the bilberry stems; at each 
scrape it gave a start, yet it never rose from its position. You can do a 
good deal with a wild animal if it is not quite sure, and the bull never 
rose to its feet until I actually clicked the shutter. Then it gave an 
immense bound out of its couch and raced away as if the devil and all 
his satellites were in pursuit. 
When the white -tail is grazing it nearly always shakes its tail before 
raising its head, so that if the hunter is so fortunate as to find one in an 
open place he may be able to advance upon and note its movements of 
watchfulness by its habits. 
No pronghorn or mountain sheep will permit the liberties that may be 
taken with deer. Their eyesight is too keen and too sure to make mistakes, 
and for this reason they are at once in a higher category as beasts of the 
chase, from the hunter’s point of view. 
The white-tail is a very silent deer. The female makes a soft murmuring 
sound when calling her calf, and if in pain bleats like the calf. The buck 
when alarmed utters a loud snort, and at night is said to utter a shrill 
whistle like the chamois of Europe and the various reedbucks of Africa. 
Audubon says it can be heard at the distance of half a mile. Like nearly 
all deer, when captured alive they make a loud bawling cry. When chased 
by hounds they are usually silent, but many good observers have heard 
white -tails utter a bleating sound when hunted. 
Great numbers of white-tails were, until recently, killed by means of the 
jack-light and the shot gun, but now this poaching method is seldom used, 
as it is both illegal and detested by all true sportsmen. The usual method 
of killing was for the poacher to paddle his canoe, in the bow of which a 
bright jack -light was fixed, along the shores of a lake or river and to find 
the deer on feed at night. Deer, when they view the light, are not alarmed, 
but only curious, and come close to inspect the phenomenon and offer an 
easy target to the shooter. 
Of course, the chief enemy of the white -tail is man with a repeating 
Winchester or Savage, but in the west wolves and cougars take no small 
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