THE MULE AND WHITE -TAILED DEER 
manages to pass round a tree or bush ere it halts. If a shot is fired and 
does not strike the animal it seldom gives a second chance. When hit the 
white -tail drops its head and runs slowly through the cover, twisting to 
and fro to throw its pursuer off the track. 
White -tailed deer are fine swimmers and can travel so fast in the water 
that it takes a good man in a canoe to catch them. In fact, so confident are 
they of their swimming powers that they almost invariably make for some 
river or lake when hunted by hounds, and there are many instances on 
record of deer taking to the open sea, when they trust to luck to find 
another landing place. In “ Forest and Stream ** there is a record of a 
white -tail captured near Portland, Maine, five miles from the shore, and 
another was taken at a mile and a half from shore, swimming away from 
the land. Deer swim higher in the autumn when they are fat than in 
summer. 
The white -tail buck is said to wallow to a certain extent in the autumn, 
but does not smear itself all over with mud and bog as red deer, moose, 
and wapiti do. 
In the winter the herd keeps together but in the spring the sexes separate, 
often two males keeping together throughout the summer. The females 
also keep in small herds with the young of the previous year until May, 
when they go off alone to seek some quiet spot in which to hide the calf. 
The female does not produce young as a rule until she is two years old, 
but there are instances in which one-year-old females have had calves. 
The usual number born is two, but three are known at a birth, whilst 
Audubon relates an instance of a female about to bear four well developed 
fawns. 
The larger deer hide their young only for a few days and the antelope 
for a week, but the white -tail female conceals her young in cover for a 
month or more. Fawns begin to follow the mother in four to five weeks 
and then develop rapidly. They feed in the half light on tender grasses 
and retire and live in hiding for the greater part of the day. 
As a rule the buck sheds its antlers in January, but, as with other deer, 
the date depends much on the condition and age of the animal. The new 
horns do not appear at once, for it takes the animal some time to get into 
condition after the rigours of winter; but once the grasses begin to spring 
in March the horns grow quickly, at the usual rate of antlers, and are gene- 
rally complete about the middle of August and then rubbed clean of the 
velvet. During the summer white -tail bucks are fond of frequenting the 
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