VIRGINIAN DEER. 
223 
fields in Barnwell, on the opposite side, returning before day-light to their 
customary haunts, some four or five miles distant. 
The localities selected by Deer as places of rest and concealment dur- 
ing the day are various, such as the season of the year and the nature of 
the country and climate may suggest to the instincts of the animal. Al- 
though we have occasionally in mountainous regions, especially in the 
higher mountains of Virginia and the Green Mountains of Vermont, de- 
tected a Deer lying without concealment on an elevated ledge of bare 
rock, like the ibex and chamois on the Alps, yet as a general habit, the 
animal may be said to seek concealment, either among clumps of myrtle 
or laurel bushes, {Kalmia), in lai'ge fallen tree-tops, briar-patches, clus- 
ters of alder bushes, {ahms), or in tall broom-grass, {Andropogon dissiti- 
flortis). In cold weather it prefers seeking its repose in some sheltered 
dry situation, where it is protected from the wind, and warmed by the 
ra5'^s of the sun ; and on these occasions it may be found in briar-patches 
which face the south, or in tufts of broom-grass in old uncultivated fields. 
In warm weather it retires during the day to shady swamps, and may of- 
ten be started from a clump of alder or myrtle bushes near some rivulet 
or cool stream. To avoid the persecution of moschetoes and ticks, it oc- 
casional! j', like the moose in Maine, resorts to some stream or pond and 
lies for a time immersed in the water, from which the nose and a part of 
the head only project. We recollect an occasion, when on sitting down 
to rest on the margin of the Santee river, we observed a pair ot antlers 
on the surface of the water near an old tree, not ten steps from us. The 
half-closed eye of the buck was upon us ; we were without a gun, and he 
was, therefore, safe from any injury we could inflict on him. Anxious to 
observe the cunning he would display, we turned our eyes another way, 
and commenced a careless whistle, as if for our own amusement, walking 
gradually towards him in a circuitous route, until we arrived within a 
few feet of him. He had now sunk so deep in the water that an inch 
only of his nose, and slight portions of his prongs were seen above the 
surface. We again sat down on the batik for some minutes, pretending 
to read a book. At length we suddenly directed our eyes towards him, 
and raised our hand, when he rushed to the shore, and dashed through the 
rattling canebrake, in rapid style. 
The food of the common Deer varies at different periods of the year. In 
winter, it feeds on buds of several kinds of shrubs, such as the wild rose 
the hawthorn, various species of bramble, (Rubus,) the winter green 
(Pyrola,) the Partridge Berry, {Mitchella repens,) the Deer Leaf, {Ilopea 
tinctorial the bush Honeysuckle, {Azalea^ and many others. In spring 
and summer it subsists on tender grasses, being very select in its choice 
