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COLUMBIAN BLACK-TAILED DEER. 
One instant — the deadly rifle has sent its leaden messenger and the buck 
lies struggling in his gore. 
Short work is made of the return to camp if no more Deer signs are 
about ; and a straight cut may bring the hunters home in less than an 
hour, even should they have been two or three in following their prize. 
Sometimes the Deer start up suddenly, quite near, and are shot down on 
the instant ; occasionally, after a long pursuit, the crack of a rifle from an 
unknown hunter deprives the others of their chance ; and — must we admit 
it- — sometimes they miss ; and not unfrequently they see no game at all. 
Mr. J. G. Bell informed us that while he was digging gold in a seques- 
tered and wild canon, in company with a young man with whom he was 
associated in the business, they used to lie down to rest during the heat of 
the day, and occasionally he shot a Black-tailed Deer, which unsuspect- 
ingly came within shooting distance down the little brook that flowed in 
the bottom of the ravine. He also used to rise very early in the mornings 
occasionally, and seek for the animals in the manner of still-hunting, as 
practised in the United States. One morning he killed three in this 
manner, before his breakfast-time, and sold them, after reserving some 
of the best parts for himself and companion, for eighty dollars apiece ! 
He frequently sold Deer subsequently, as well as hares and squirrels, 
birds, <fcc., which he shot at different times, for enormous prices. Many 
of the miners, indeed, turned their attention to killing Deer, elk, bear, 
antelopes, geese, ducks, and all sorts of game and wild fowl, by which they 
realized considerable sums from selling them at San Francisco and other 
places. We have heard of one person who, after a luckless search for 
gold, went to killing Deer and other game, and in the course of about 
eighteen months had made five thousand dollars by selling to the miners 
at the diggings. 
The gait of this species is not so graceful as that of the Virginian Deer , 
it bounds rather more like the roebuck of Europe than any other of our 
Deer except the Long-tailed Deer, and is reported to be very swift. The 
season of its breeding is earlier than that of the common Deer, and it no 
doubt brings forth the same number of young at a time. 
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 
This beautiful Deer was first met with by J. W. Audubon on the eastern 
spurs of the coast range of mountains after leaving Los Angeles and 
traversing a portion of the Tule valley in California. On entering the 
broad plain of the San Joaquin and river of the lakes, few Black- tailed 
Doer were met with, and the elk and antelope took their place. The 
