July 14, 1906.] 
FOREST AND STREAM 
51 
on by Mr. Seton, is the speed of the antelope. 
In my opinion, Mr. Seton is unquestionably 
right in thinking that the speed of wild animals 
is almost always overestimated. His table of 
relative speeds is very interesting. It is as 
follows: 
Best speed per mile at rate of miles per hour. 
Race horse . 34 
Prong horned antelope.32 
Greyhound . 3 ° 
Texan jack rabbit.28 
Common fox .26 
Northern coyote .24 
Foxhound .22 
Gray wolf .20 
In making out such a table, allowance must be 
made for the individual variation in all animals. 
There is unquestionably a very great difference in 
the speed of antelope or horses or greyhounds or 
coyotes. On the Yellowstone Expedition of 
1873, Gen. Stanley’s dog Gibbon, caught twenty- 
two unwounded antelope, and of these a number 
were single bucks. This dog was no doubt ex¬ 
ceptionally swift, and I have never heard of any 
record which approached his. The following 
year, Gen. Custer’s pack of greyhounds and stag- 
hounds caught no antelope, although they were 
chasing them all the time. They did catch many 
jack rabbits, and occasionally a kit fox,, but no 
coyotes. 
Although the antelope, is the swiftest animal of 
North America, it is well known that coyotes 
organize to chase them by relays, and often 
capture them in this way. I have seen this hap¬ 
pen several times, and it is an interesting sight. 
I question, however, whether this is resorted to 
as a result of special hunger—when the coyotes 
are “hard pressed”—for it is practiced—or used to 
be in a good antelope country—in June, July and 
August, when the food of the coyotes is or ought 
to be as abundant as at any time of the year. I 
have never seen gray wolves pursue antelope in 
this way, and do not believe they do it. 
Judge Caton’s remark that the leaping power 
of the antelope is always exercised horizontally 
is, of course, entirely true, but, as I think I have 
already pointed out, an antelope can perfectly 
well learn to jump a fence. I recall one belong¬ 
ing to the late Major Frank North, of Columbus, 
Neb., which, though usually confined in the front 
dooryard, sometimes got out through the gate, 
and wandered down toward the center of the 
town, where the dogs used to get after it and 
chase it back. It would run back ahead of the 
dogs and would sail over a four-foot picket fence 
as if it had been a deer, and then turn around and 
look at its pursuers as they barked through the 
fence. 
I am very glad that Mr. Seton insists so 
strongly on the local attachments of the antelope. 
This is as true of the antelope as of other wild 
—and half-wild domestic—animals, and of many 
non-migratory birds. Their range is extremely 
limited. During my residence in the West, I used 
to know constantly of cases, where at any hour 
of the day I could go out and find a certain deer 
or two, or a certain little bunch of antelope, a 
family of elk, or a little group of sheep. Often 
there are seasonal shiftings, which may be called 
migrations, if you please, but when the animal 
or the bird has settled down, there, or very near 
there, it stays. 
I have never happened to see a play quite so 
extended as that reported by Mr. McFadden, but 
what he describes I take to be preparatory to 
the chasing of the does by the bucks, which occurs 
usually from mid September to early October. I 
have seen bucks chasing the does as early as 
Sept, jo, and the sight is so impressive for 
astonishing speed and long endurance displayed 
that it never ceased to interest me. From a con¬ 
venient watch point, I have seen a buck start 
after a doe and chase her up a broad flat valley 
so far that the running animals became mere 
white points on the yellow soil, and then I have 
seen them turn and come back as hard as they 
could go, each one kicking up a distant dust, and 
the two growing large with astonishing rapidity 
as they approached. This, in an antelope country, 
was a common sight, and sometimes after a series 
of races like this, some of which I have estimated 
THE PRONGHORN. DRAWN BY CARL RUNGIUS. 
