VIRGINIAN DEER. 
231 
which the Deer that escaped from the snares were finally enclosed and 
shot with arrows. The common Deer, however, is more suspicious and 
timid, and will seldom suffer itself to be circumvented in this manner. 
The American Rein Deer is also brought near to the huntei Ijingin w ait 
behind the concealment of a clump of bushes, or heap of stones, by the 
waving of a small flag of cloth, or a deer’s tail, which, exciting its atten- 
tion, it falls a sacrifice to its curiosity. Ihis stratagem is also successfully 
practised on our western prong-horned Antelope. 
The Common Deer is frequently brought within bow-shot by the Indians, 
who call up the does, as we have already mentioned, by imitating, with a 
pipe made of a reed, the bleating of the fawn, and also the bucks, by an 
imitation of the shrill, whistling sound which they emit during the rutting 
season. The wily savage often clothes himself in the hide of a Deer, 
with the horns and ears attached— imitating the walk and other actions 
of the animal, by which means he is enabled to approach and almost 
mingle with the herd, and kill several with his arrows before they take 
the alarm. Since the introduction of fire-arms, however, many tribes of 
Indians have laid aside the bow and arrow', and adopted the gun. The 
traders who visit them, usually supply them with an inferior article, and 
we have never seen any considerable number of Indians expert in the use 
of the rifle. The late Dr. Leith ee informed us that the Florida Indians 
seldom shot at a Deer beyond twenty- five or thirty yards, exercising great 
patience and caution before they ventured on firing ; the result, however, 
under these favom-able circumstances, was usually successful. We believe 
the Indians of North America never used poisoned arrows in the destruc- 
tion of game, like the natives of Cafiraria and other portions of Africa, or 
the aborigines of Brazil and the neighbouring regions of South America. 
The white man conducts his hunting excursions in various modes suited 
to his tastes and adapted to the nature of the country in which he re.sides. 
In mountainous, rocky regions, where horses cannot be used with advan- 
tage, he goes on foot, armed with a rifle, carries no dog, and seeks for 
the Deer in such situations as his sagacity and experience suggest. He 
either espies him in his bed, or silently steals upon him behind the covert 
of the stem of a large tree whilst he is feeding, and leisurely takes a 
steady and fatal aim. On the contrary, in situations adapted to riding, 
where the woods are thickly clothed with underbrush, where here and 
there wide openings exist between briar-patches, and clumps of myrtle- 
bushes, as in the Southern States, the Deer are almost universally chased 
with hounds, and instead of the rifle, double-barrelled deer-guns, of 
different sizes, carrying from twelve to twenty buck-shot, are alone made 
use of by the hunters. 
