THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
toll of the herds when deep snow has fallen. On this they can run more 
easily than the deer, and the latter, being so very local in their habits, never 
seek to change their habitat even after the greater number of a band have 
been killed. 
Some backwoodsmen are of opinion that wolves seldom hunt the white- 
tail for any distance. Either the latter is overtaken at once or it reaches 
water or some open road or clearing where its pursuers will not follow. 
But this probably applies only to swampy regions, for in Quebec and 
Ontario there is little doubt that packs of wolves follow the white -tail, 
as they do the mule deer in the west, and run into it after a long chase. 
To give some idea of the destruction effected by a few wolves, Mr Thompson - 
Seton says (“Life Histories of Northern Animals,” p. 89): “The Hon. 
George H. Shiras tells me that in the spring of 1906 he examined carefully 
a cedar swamp in Alger County, Northern Michigan, and found within a 
radius of three miles 325 carcasses of deer killed by wolves during the 
past winter.” No doubt both wolves, lynxes and foxes killed a certain 
number of fawns, and whilst all females will run from a wolf that threatens 
their calves, they will boldly attack a fox or coyote and put it to flight. 
Great numbers of white -tails often die of epizootic distemper and 
parasitic disease of the lungs and stomach. 
The usual gait of the white -tail is an easy bounding gallop. In thick 
cover this is varied by beautiful leaps over fallen timber. Some of its 
jumps are surprising in their length, and one that I measured from 
the take-off to the landing over a four -foot log was 21 feet. At each 
high bound the tail moves upwards and looks like a white flag being 
raised. In the open this deer also jumps high into the air, as if 
intending to see the object of disturbance and to gain a better view of 
its surroundings. 
It is a beautiful sight to watch a white -tail retreat in a maze of windfalls. 
It knows exactly how and where to jump or pass beneath a fallen tree, 
and in and out it threads its way with a coolness and deliberation that 
shows the perfect master of woodcraft. Again and again you see it arrive 
at some obstacle that you think must stop it and thus offer you a quiet shot, 
but it is never at a loss, nor does it stop without covering its body in such 
a way that no successful shot can be made except at the head. Most of the 
deer spring, run a bit, and then halt and look back, apparently careless 
whether their bodies are hidden or not. Not so the white-tail in timber; 
it lures you into the belief that it will give an open shot, but always just 
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