. Familiar life in field and forest; the animals, birds, frogs, and salamanders . e liquid eyes of a its mother, and after- a gun at one or the tent to destroy, fol- ive animal of thishas once lookedyoung fawn andward has aimedother with in-lowing up the in- ;.tent with its accom- k; :|S8plishment, burdens his ^conscience with a sortof questionable guilt forthe rest of his slay such beautifulcreatures seems some-thing not far short ofmurder; but there isthe venison to be considered, and as that is the meatof the epicure ones conscience must be smothered. It would seem as if I stretched
. Familiar life in field and forest; the animals, birds, frogs, and salamanders . e liquid eyes of a its mother, and after- a gun at one or the tent to destroy, fol- ive animal of thishas once lookedyoung fawn andward has aimedother with in-lowing up the in- ;.tent with its accom- k; :|S8plishment, burdens his ^conscience with a sortof questionable guilt forthe rest of his slay such beautifulcreatures seems some-thing not far short ofmurder; but there isthe venison to be considered, and as that is the meatof the epicure ones conscience must be smothered. It would seem as if I stretched a point to includethis rare animal in my list of familiar life ; but I donot. Times have changed and the deer is not as rareas he was. Last summer there were many complaints mother for nourishment during the helpless period of its Mammalia* in a word, are animals which suckle their young ;the term is derived from the Latin, mamma, meaning the breast/Thus, we undoubtedly have sufficient reason to believe the endear-ing name mamma had its origin with the Latin Virginia Deer 230 FAMILIAR LIFE IN FIELD AND FOKEST. coming from the farmers in Vermont and NewHampshire because the animal had made some havocin their cornfields. I do not know how much of anexcuse such complaints were to,secure a modificationin the strict game laws of bothStates, but Isuspect theaverage farm-er was anx-ious to get abetter chance at adeer. At pres-ent the laws areso comprehen-sive and effect-ual that the deerhas a chance atthe farmer! a fact of such slight consequence thatI think we have no sufficient reason to regret , last summer, three deer made their appearancewithin a quarter of a mile of my hillside studio, andonce two young ones appeared close by the pasturefence on the border of the wood, not more than fiftyfeet from the piazza rails. Repeatedly deer had beenseen on the highway in the spring, and once one waschased on the track by a passing train. In 1867 when, as a chi
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