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IN THE WOOD WITH DEER Habits and Lives of the Noble Deni ¬ zens of the Forest ForestHow How They Winter Under Their TheirChiefs Chiefs Care Defense Against AgainstTheir Their Enemies The first snowfall of the winter found the big buck and his three does up on the open hillside above the timber from the protecting shelter of which they had been driven by a prowling cougar Sometime during the night while the wailing winds from the desolate north went sobbing through the draws and valleys they came to a smaller patch of timber occupying five or six hundred acres and nearly at the top of the mountain mountainDown Down below above the lake the trees were all fir and pine but here noar the summit their place was taken by hemlock and balsam Great festoons of moss and lichen hung from their limbs draping and dressing them in fantastic garments Here the deer spent the night moving round restlessly and making no attempt to bed down for the shock of their scare was still too recent Bitterly recentBitterly cold the wind sighed and drifted search ¬ ing out every corner and even the shelter of the big timber could not offer much protection Morning found it still snowing and the next morning too and so for three nights and days till the clouds lifted and the snow ceased and winter had come Presently comePresently the sun came out as if to see what had happened during its absence and looked down on a world of white a world of snow covered valley and mountain with the white dusted trees picked out in detail like the sugarcoated decorations of a mons ¬ trous cake cakeEvery Every smallest twig or branch or leaf was laden down with its burden The outlines of broken stumps or fallen trees were blurred into a dull irregularity from which all angles and corners had been smoothed out by the twofoot depth of the fall Then as nearly always hannens in the moun ¬ tains it started to thaw under the warmth of the sun and the great trees shook themselves free from their burden As night fell it grew colder till the moon big and white and clear rose and rode across the sky and the icy fingers of the frost gripped the mountains in the grasp of winter winterHOW HOW THE DEER LIVES AND MOVES MOVESMorning Morning when it came found the snow criss ¬ crossed with a network of tracks Here deep and broad like the furrow from an erratic plow is the trail left by a porcupine as he moved to fresh quarters Farther on a white weasel had crossed a tiny snowburied creek and gone on bis tireless way seeking in every hole and corner for some ¬ thing to satisfy his blood lust and down in a little hollow the trampled snow shows where a big snow shoepawed lynx has made his killing and then gone circling round to try and find another rabbit rabbitAmong Among the many records left by the people of the hills it is easy to pick out the trail made by the big buck and the three does as it leads straight down the hillside The deer seemed in no great hurry and fed as they traveled nibbling1 off the ends of the brush that stuck up through the snow and now and again pawing away to uncover some tuft of grass that was not entirely buried buriedSo So by easy stages the deer circled round until they ranged back into their old stamping grounds near the lake for unlike the blacktail deer the whitetails prefer the lower benches and sidehllls rather than the uplands below the summits summitsAs As the days passed without further storms the snow packed down so that the deer were able to move around and find sufficient for their needs without much inconvenience Willow tips and buck brush furnished them much of their sustenance and also the wild rose stems that stuck up through the snow with the red driedup haws still adhering Besides this there was an abundance of young ever ¬ green growth fir rind white pine with now and again an occasional hemlock and the tenderer sprays of these were eagerly devoured devouredTo To the deer In the early part 9f the winter starvation is never much of a terrpri for the hills are always full of brush and twigs that can be I reached without much difficulty and that at least will avert hunger eyen if not overabundant in nourishment In comparison with the bear or our own domestic animals they are not voracious feed ¬ ers Even when among kneehigh grass they never do more than crop a few mouthfuls before moving farther on and when living off the brush they usu ¬ ally nibble off only the tenderest ends never gain ¬ ing much in any ona place andyet covering a tre ¬ mendous amount of territory in their dainty half hesitating halffrightened wuy wuyHOBNS HOBNS MABK OF MALE SUPREMACY SUPREMACYToward Toward the end of the year the big buck shed his horns rubbing off first the one and then the other for now that the mating season was passed the life had gone out of them and they worked loose from the scalp Several of the younger bucks in the neighborhood had already lost theirs A few would carry them through into the new year but late sheddingIt December will usually find the bucks shedding It is doubtful except in a few isolated instances if these horns are ever used as i means of offense Rather they seem to be a sign of the male superi ¬ ority the vesting in the buck of the powers of de ¬ fense for the possession of his does Many of the deer tribe fight savagely among themselves for the ownership of their harems notably elk and moose and at such time their antlers are used to further their desires but it is rarely that the smaller deer use their horns as a weapon against a common foe foeAs As December ended the weather broke up and storm after storm came sweeping through the val ¬ ley Day after day with monotonous regularity the snow fell deeper and deener soft and powdery as yet but adding with each day further difficulties in the way of finding food With the tremendous precipitation of the mountains the snow becomes a real problem that the deer have to face So long as it remains soft they can move around and find enough to eat for there is always the smaller evergreen growth as a standby but when the weather changes in midwinter and rain and frost harden up the snow into the deadly crust then they are unable to travel for weeks at a stretch and must perforce remain wherever the frost has caught them At such times they are in their greatest danger By the length of their legs the same wonderful legs that are their strength and safety when the ground is bare again they sink into the snow up past their heaving flanks with every jump they take and wolf and cougar take easy toll from them In the two last months of the winter Feb ¬ ruary and March there are probably more dqer lost than all the rest of the year including the hunting season The big cougars that haunt the yards kill on an average once a week and a wolf pack run ¬ ning onto a buch of deer when the snow is crusted will kill off every one and leave the halfeaten carcasses as unworthy of further notice noticeEven Even the slinking coyote the poor relation of the wolf will take his toll though they usually kill but a single deer at a time and will return again after their meal until the whitened bones have been gnawed clean Nor are the deer always wisa in choosing the location of their yards and a long drawn out cold spell often finds them with all the available browse eaten off before the spring thaws set them free agaiu agaiuWINTEB WINTEB CARE OF DEEB FAMILY FAMILYAs As the deptli of the snow increased the big buck led his does up the hillside to the bench above Here there was a strip of timber then the country broke up into a big basin that gradually swung round to the soutli and formed an outlet for a little creek that finally emptied into the lake The big timber gave protection from the wind and whenever the trees thinned out their pace was taken by thickets of younger growth thaf promised a plenti ¬ ful supplyFor food supply For a week or so the weathe kept warm and open thawing by day and cloudirg up at night so that the top snow hardly froze at all and ending with several days of driving rain that packed the surface snow down considerably All the while the deer kept continually on the move ranging for the most part within the milelong limits of the basin and yet circling and swinging round first on one side of the valley and then on the other as if the open weather made them restless restlessSo So they broke a considerable amount of new trail every day wandering aimlessly from one thicket of evergreen to another and picking up all the feed they needed Nor did they follow one another in single file which is usually one of the character ¬ istics of the deer each one instead breaking a trail of his own as the mood seized him for with the snow rainsoftened the traveling though heavy was not hard hardThen Then with the lifting of the clouds and the clear ¬ ing of the sky came a cold snap The snow crusted up over night and further traveling became im ¬ possible It is doubtful if the deer broke their trails beforehand intentionally Rather it seems as if their wandering instinct was responsilile for their keeping on the move as long as they were able to travel so that when the frost came and the snow crusted they had several miles of broken trails wandering to and fro across the hillside hillsideTo To this network of trails the deer would be con ¬ fined till the softer weather that heralded the coming of spring brought the breakup of winter Now and again when a warm day brought a tem ¬ porary thaw they would venture short distances into the unbroken snow though more to reach some tempting morsel of feed than to attempt to move to a newer range rangeUp Up on the high summits the caribou were driven down into the sheltered valleys that yawn like great chasms up the sides of the mountains and though the snow was piled up deep with the regu ¬ larity of the storms it remained through all the winter soft and loose For this reason the caribou do not yard un the same way that the deer do down on the lowland benches Up toward the summits it is rarely that the snow ever crusts and mere depth of fall causes only an added drawback to travel Now and again when a weeklong storm goes raging through the hills the caribou will seek the protection of some timbered basin and there they may remain till the weather clears Then they are able to move on but to the deer below where the rain and snow both fall during the winter and where the frosts freeze up the wet snow into the treacherous knifeedged crust the yards that they have chosen and the trails that they have broken become for the later part of the winter the limits of their range WAITING HIDDEN FOR GOOD SEASON SEASONIrregular Irregular and wandering on without definite aim now dropping down the hillside to skirt the bot ¬ tom of the basin but a few short yards before turn ¬ ing and climbing up to the rim again now running for a hundred yards without twist or turn the winter locked trails of the deer are wonderfully fascinating Nor in picturing them do you want to imagine a cleancut broken trail such as you would leave with your snowshoes The main trails the arteries of constant travel are more defined so that you can shed your snowshoes and walk in comparative comfort but the diverging branching network of smaller trails have in many cases been traveled over only the single time Here big and deep is the hole made by the deers body as she landed from the plunge Follows a ridge of snow and then the next depression and tucked away at the bottom the sharp triangular imprints of their feet So you can see how the doe rested for a minute after her plunge leaning almost gratefully against the snow and turning her head to nibble off the ends of the brush within reach reachAnd And hidden somewhere in the labyrinth of trails are the deer themselves hidden by day in some thicket of evergreen because yours are not the only eyes that are seeking them Here and there you can find their droppings and everywhere along the sides of the trails the cropped off ends of the brush to show where they have been feeding feedingNow Now and again while the great white moon swung overhead and the stars danced and twinkled in the bitter cold the cry of a hunting wolf would come sailing across the frosty night air filling the silent hills with eerie echoes echoesCloser Closer than this danger did not come to the deer Week after week went by not uneventful for all life in the snowbound hills is a constant fight against surprise and cold and hunger and yet not openly dangerous dangerousOnce Once a cougar or a wolf pack found them the deer would have a poor chance of escaping They might lose their pursuers in the network of trails but the odds are against them Cornered in some blind trail knowing the danger behind them and unable to turn back they would have to take to the unbroken snow If the crust held flight would bring them salvation but once they started to break through they would speedily tire themselves out until they lay panting and breathless till the slayer should find them themSo So the winter slipped away No sign of spring yet showed though gradually infinitesimally the evenings lengthened out as February spent itself All along the main trails the deer had eaten off all of the brush that they could reach and were forced to use the halfbroken smaller trails soma already filled with fresh snow snowSo So they worked up the hillside one evening as the shadows deepened the big buck in the lead and the three does strung out behind half hidden by the tree trunks DEFENSIVE BATTLE WITH COYOTE COYOTEThen Then suddenly along their back trail broke out the excited hunting cry of a coyote At once the two farthest does were seized with panic and broke into a jump down the hillside They had hardly made n dozen plunges before the coyote met them a big dog hunting by himself Snorting with fear the does whirled round and started to ascend the hill again and after them the silent gray shape that had ceased his yapping now that the game was in sight sightUp Up above at the junction of two trails stood the buck and the youngest doe snorting and stamping their fore feet The two does rushed past them branching off into a side trail and as they passed the youngest doe followed and then the big buck buckAnd And perilously close only a few short yards behind the coyote came into full sight a great lean beast with the saliva drooling from his mouth at the closeness of the deer deerThen Then the leading doe mistook her trail turning off again to follow a smaller branch trail Of a sudden they found themselves trapped at the end of the trail with only the unbroken snow ahead of them No time to turn now and retrace their steps no other alternative than to trust blindly to the crust holding and to attempt to reach one of the main trails farther down the side of the basin basinThe The first few jumps they made in safety and then the leading doe broke through Almost at the same instant her companion met the same fate The third doe not yet two years old and considerably lighter than the others made the passage to the lower trail without much difficulty and vanished out of sight among the trees For a few seconds the two does struggled wildly to regain the crust but with each jump they made they broke through again Their breath came in great sobbing gasps as they thrashed and floundered around their eyes white rimmed with terror that urged them on onTwentyfive Twentyfive yards farther down the hillside was the trail that the youngest doe had reached in safety twentyfive yards till the firm snow and the broken trail should give them a chance of escape if they could only reach it in time timeGathering Gathering every last ounce of their strength they would struggle out of the hole that their bodies had broken and then as their weight bore down on the crust sun softened with the warmth of the day and not yet frozen with the cold of the night they would break through again crunch crunch as the rotten crust gave way in great slabs slabsAnd And then at last when It seemed as if they could do no more they reached the trail almost ex ¬ hausted but gaining sudden strength as their sharp feet bit into the hardened snow of the runway As runwayAs the big buck reached the point where the does had left the trail he whirled round suddenly anl only just in time for the coyote could almost reach his hnmstrings He must have realized this big buck that a few minutes grace would allow the does a fighting chance and so he turned at the end of the trail and stood at Bay BaySeeing Seeing this his pursuer also stopped for the coyote is always a coward cowardThe The frontal attack the leap nt the throat or the quick sharp snap of white teeth to reach the heart these are not his usual methods The long chase in deep snow the cutting of the hamstrings and the disablement of his prey these if you like But greater than fear or cowardice is the specter of Hunger that haunts the winter trails and that drives the coyotes to molest the deer in the first place and Hunger now was stronger than caution cautionA A frothing snarl lips lifted so that the ugly teeth showed in all their gleaming whiteness a slinking sneaking half turn and then he sprang And the big buck used his greatest means of defense the strongest weapon the deer possess possessUp Up up on his great hind legs and then down with all his splendid strength behind the blow The sharp front feet caught the coyote in his leap crumpling him up with the tremendous force of the impact smashing his bones as if they had been made of paper and bringing deer and coyote down to ¬ gether getherRising Rising to his feet the big buck gave no second glance at his fallen adversary Down below the does had disappeared along their runway and turning the buck followed their tracks down the hillside till he reached the broken trail Then his big white flag went up and traveling on the jump he dis ¬ appeared among the trees H C Haddoa in Rod and Gun in Canada
