Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1904-10-05
OUR CAPTIVE FAWN
EXPERIENCES WITH A LITTLE
CREATURE OF THE FOREST.
Ernest Harold Baynes Writes of Its
Many Interesting Traits-Queer
Antics INDUCED In When
at Play.


ing from the window of his cottage upon
a broad green slope of the Blue noun
| tain forest, saw white-tailed doe, with
her little spotted fawn. But the fawn
was limping and, as he could not keep up
with his mother, he bleated plaintively,
and back she came to him, looking him
over with her large, mild eyes, as though
to find out why he Jagged behind. Their
the guide saw that one of the slim hind
legs was broken just above the ankle
and, fearing that the helpless youngster
might fall victim to fox or wildcat.
he captured it and brought it in. 1t took
readily to a baby's bottle, and for many
days he kept it in box where it could
neither run nor jump. 1t was sensible
little creature, and kept it's injured limb
we'll off the ground, and as the leg hung
straight down the ends of the broken
bone soon knit and the fawn was able
to touch his little black hoof to the floor.
Then it was that his benefactor, hold
ing him tight in his arms, drove five
miles across the mountains and turned
the baby over to me. The little thing
limped badly when he was set down on
the barn floor, but we gave him a soft
bed of hay in one of the stalls, and he
soon lay down to rest. When he got up
again he seemed better, and, as he was
hungry, he let us know it by bleating
very gently and by looking toward us
eagerly with his big, soft brown eyes
When l held the bottle out to him he
knew at once that his food was there,
but as he took the nipple in his mouth
he instinctively punched me with his
hard little head, just as he would have
punched his mother had he been taking
his dinner with her. After drinking a
pint of milk he nibbled a few bits Of
grass and lay down to rest again.
He was a wonderfully beautiful crea-
ture. His glossy coat was reddish-brown
in color, with striking white spots on
the neck, back and sides. His legs,
which were lighter in color, were slen-
der, sinewy and graceful, one of them
being marred by bunch of hard tissue
around the point of fracture. But his
head was his most beautiful feature,
after all. His great gentle eyes were full
of expression and, in combination with
the large, shapely ears, which moved
IVA
sound, showed pleasure, excitement,
fear and other emotions, almost as plain
ly as human face could show them.
His disposition was affectionate, and
he never tired of licking ones face and
hands when he got the chance, making
| them feel as though they had received a
coat of glue
Of course, was prepared to believe
| that the white spots on his otherwise
| brown coat were there for some good
| purpose, but they looked so conspicu-
Gus as he stood in the barn that could
| scarcely believe that they were part of
a scheme of protective coloration But
one day, after his leg was we'll enough
| to permit him to run about bit, took
| him out into the fields One of these
| fields was abloom with oxeye daisies,
and as the fawn stood among them they
| at once suggested reason for the spots
| upon his coat. l half closed my eyes.
| and there was no fawn at ALL he was
| patch or white flowers, like hundreds Of
| similar patches in the same field. Since
| myriads of daisies and other white flow
ers are blooming at time when a fawn
| ture seeks to protect it from its enemies
| by making it resemble patch of these
| flowers. l took photograph of nv
| fawn in the daisy field, and the result
was very interesting. The legs and body
| of the little creature melt away into the
| grass, while the white spots stand out
conspicuous, like the daisies which sur
round them
In front of the stall in which kent
| the fawn l placed barrier four feet
| high, and to my establishment, few
days after his leg was well, he leaped
right over it from standstill. and
alighted on the floor of the barn And
yet perhaps this is not to be wondered
at when we consider that his father or
| mother, hard pressed. could clear
| height of from eight to nine feet, and DOS
| sibly more.
| Every evening we take the deer out
| for a run over the hills, using a bot.
tie of milk to coax him back to the
barn after he has had his exercise
Sometimes it looks as though We had
seen the last of him, as he disappears
| going at full speed over the brow of a
| hill perhaps half mile away Then
| some one shouts: Here he comes,"
| and we see him coming, like a brown
streak, tail up and ears laid back. ris-
| ing like bird at every rock and bush
in his path, checking his speed as he ap-
| proaches US, and breaking into brisk,
elastic trot, which nothing but a deer
can initiate.
| ERNEST HAROLD BAYNES
| A Good Substitute.