Hunters are human and it is reasonable to expect them to make an occasional mistake in identifying game in the woods. Quite a few moose are killed every year, and, while some of these kills are deliberate, some of them are killed as deer by men who do not know the difference or by men who do not take the time to identify their target. There is no excuse in either case. Aside from the difference in size, moose and deer have different shapes, colors and actions that should make identification easy.

Dogs and foxes have nearly fooled me several times and, while I never have shot at any of these animals in mistake for deer, it would take but little imagination to change a large fox into a small deer if the setting were right. These and other animals can be easily mistaken for deer by the amateur who is so "keyed up" that he expects to see a deer at all times and isn't exactly sure of what he is looking for.

It is to prevent these mistakes that I recommend the study of lithographic prints of the picture deer. I have seen living picture deer on a few occasions and they are an unforgettable sight. When seen at the edge of a field in the early morning sun and with an evergreen background, they are a sight to thrill the heart of any hunter. They are seldom seen under these conditions and when they are it seems a shame to destroy so beautiful a picture. Usually the deer which the hunter sees is nothing but a ghostly shadow drifting across a shaded woods road or, more often, a dodging, bouncing streak of white as the animal seeks safety in flight with its white flag upraised to give the hunter a target which is well above and behind the one he wants to hit.

The instantaneous identification of deer in the woods or fields is almost impossible, until one has hunted for years and seen them under many conditions, for each deer is usually seen in a different setting and from a different angle with different lighting conditions. Without this experience, any animal with the camouflage of the white-tailed would be hard to identify anywhere in its natural wild setting, and many things other than deer are likely to resemble these animals more than the real thing. Fixing the picture deer in the mind is a sort of negative identification method. Anything which resembles the picture is a deer; and other objects which could be, might be; but such objects call for better identification before shooting.

In my own case, I have always been right when I was sure at the first glance that the object I had sighted was a deer; but when I have seen an object which I thought might have been a deer and had to take a second look for positive identification, I have been mistaken more than half of the time, for the object was something other than a deer. Of course, the hunter will seldom mistake anything else for a running deer (with the possible exception of dogs and red foxes) and most of the objects which he mistakes for standing deer are, more or less, the products of his imagination.

It is to prevent the mistake of shooting it is very recommended to study of lithographic prints of the picture deer. The instantaneous identification of deer in the woods or fields is almost impossible, until one has hunted for years and seen them under many conditions, for each deer is usually seen in a different setting and from a different angle with different lighting conditions.

Without this experience, any animal with the camouflage of the white-tailed would be hard to identify anywhere in its natural wild setting, and many things other than deer are likely to resemble these animals more than the real thing.