SKINNER — THE PRONG-HORN 
99 
family parties are frequently seen in summer, and in winter prong-horns 
certainly are social and gregarious, all our animals gathering together 
in one or two large bands. As far as other species are concerned, they 
evidently prefer to be by themselves. I see no evidence of antagonism, 
but an antelope’s disposition seems to be to avoid all other animals. 
Occasionally they are with deer, elk, mountain sheep, and even buffa- 
loes, but the association is due to limited forage and not at all to socia- 
bility. The prong-horns always shy off from the larger animals, do 
not relish their proximity, and even go so far as to decline forage over 
which elk and domestic sheep, cattle, or horses have grazed. Two or 
three times 1 have seen them running from pursuing buffaloes and elk. 
In addition to being peaceable and friendly among themselves, 
many of the antelopes get strangely tame and confiding towards us. 
In riding horseback along our roads, I have passed within twenty feet 
without disturbing them in the least. Yet they vary a good deal, 
and individuals that I marked one day as tame, were met the next 
day on migration and were extremely nervous and wild. In fact, I 
have found prong-horns much wilder and more suspicious on migration 
than at other times. 
Timid as they are, prong-horns have such a developed sense of curi- 
osity, that it serves them ill against man; in the case of their natural 
enemies, their matchless speed will usually carry them out of any 
danger their curiosity gets them into. Since the days of Lewis and 
Clark, hunters, taking a leaf from the Indians’ method, have made use 
of a red flag to entice the curious animals within range of their rifles. 
Nor is it necessarily red, any color will do, the more conspicuous the 
better. If no flag is convenient, the hunter lies on his back and kicks 
one foot quickly up and down. In fact any strange object, or any 
strange motion, will do the trick. 
On one occasion a buck prong-horn on a river bottom saw two elk 
coming down a hill a mile away, ran to and around them, and then back 
to where he had been originally. On another occasion, I got off my 
horse and left him to graze while I examined a bird-nest I had dis- 
covered. Soon a female antelope came up over a hill and spied the 
horse; immediately she began to display great curiosity, circling about, 
and gradually working nearer, but frequently whirling as quick as a 
flash, and away at full speed for a hundred feet, only to draw nearer 
once more. When a vagrant eddy of wind carried a scent of me to her, 
she was off in earnest and ran clear out of sight; but even then after a 
short stay, she was back again for another look! 
