224 
VIRGINIAN DEER. 
and dainty in its taste. At these seasons it frequently leaps fences, and 
visits the fields of the planter, taking an occasional bite at his young wheat 
and oats, not overlooking the green corn, (Maize,) and giving a decided 
preference to a field planted with cow-peas, which it divests of its joung 
pods and tender leaves; nor does it pass lightly by berries of all kinds, 
such as the Huckleberry, Blackberry and Sloe, {Vihurnum jyr unifolium.) 
We are informed by a friend that in the vicinity of Nashville, (Tenessee,) 
there is an extensive park containing about three hundred Deer, the prin- 
cipal food of which is the luxuriant Kentucky blue-grass, (Poa prate usis.) 
In autumn it finds an abundance of very choice food in the chestnuts, chin- 
quepins and beech-nuts strewn over the ground. The localities of he 
various oaks are resorted to, and we have seen its tracks most abundantly 
under the Live Oak, {Quercus virens,) the acorns of which it appears to 
prefer to all others. We once observed three deer feeding on these acorns, 
surrounded by a flock of wild turkeys, all eagerly engaged in claiming 
their share. The fruit of the Persimmon tree, after having been ripened 
by the frosts of winter, falls to the ground, and also becomes a favourite 
food of the Deer. 
Possessing such a choice of food, we might suppose this animal would 
be always fat : this, however, is not the case, and, except at certain 
seasons of the year, the Deer is rather poor. The bucks are always 
in fine order from the month of August to November, when we have 
seen some that were very fat. One which we killed weighed one 
hundred and seventy-five pounds. We have been informed that some 
have reached considerably over two hundred pounds. In November, and 
sometimes a little earlier, the rutting season commences in Carolina, when 
the neck of the buck begins to dilate to a large size. He is now con- 
stantly on foot, and nearly in a full run, in search of the does. On meet- 
ing with other males, tremendous battles ensue, when, in some rare in- 
stances, the weaker animal is gored to death ; generally, however, he flies 
from the vanquisher, and follow'S him, crest fallen, at a respectful and 
convenient distance, ready to turn on his heels and scamper off at the first 
threat of his victorious rival. In these rencontres, the horns of the com- 
batants sometimes become interlocked in such a manner that they cannot 
be separated, and the pugnacious bucks are consigned to a lingering and 
inevitable death by starvation. We have endeavoured to disengage these 
horns, but found them so completely entwined that no skill or strength of 
ours was successful. We have several times seen two, and on one occa- 
sion, three pairs of horns thus interlocked, and ascertained that the skulls 
and skeletons of the Deer had always been found attached. These battles 
only take place during the rutting season, when the horns are too firmlv 
