If a whitetail buck has grown to maturity in a hunted pasture, I think he deserves the title of "trophy" regardless of the size of his antlers.

It's a little sad that almost everything written about African Hunting features the great dangerous game, the "Big Five" (ie. lion, leopard, elephant, cape buffalo, and rhinoceros). I say "sad" because there are so many other fascinating species of game in Africa that present a very real sporting challenge to a hunter.

Most of us tend to take our sense of hearing for granted, at least until we miss hearing a beloved or meaningful sound ... the voice of a grandchild, the evening song of a mockingbird, or perhaps a musical composition that "takes us back."

The dread malady named in the title occurs most frequently with neophyte hunters, often on their first hunt, and appears when they first see - or more particularly, when they first try to shoot - a game animal.

Port Aransas waters had never seemed so dead as in the summer of 1950. I couldn't buy a bite anywhere . . . surf, piers, jetties, passes or bays. So I went to see Bill Ellis, the owner-in-residence of the historic Tarpon Inn.

Since trophy hunters seem to be in low esteem among uninformed non-hunters, I cannot so identify myself without a word of explanation. First, true trophy-deer hunters are highly selective, discriminating and skilled hunters who kill very seldom and who help keep the age and sex ratios in a whitetail population as much like an unhunted herd as possible.

That's what certain Indian tribes called the annual rutting period of the local whitetails. It's not a bad description, actually, of the three or four week peak mating season of our most plentiful native deer.

Last week we mentioned a few mysteries about whitetails' reproductive rituals. Now we'll examine some things we do know. We know that the timing of the rut varies with latitude. For example, the annual mating festivities in the South Texas Brush Country begin about one month later than in the Hill Country.

In my library are more than 100 books on hunting whitetail deer, including all the most significant volumes back to the very first one in 1881, the classic "The Still Hunter" by Van Dyke. Many of these are good reading, if only to observe how American hunters' understanding of deer behavior has evolved during these 125 years.

Most kinds of hunting involve a lot of waiting. The best thing about this fact is that the waiting is mostly done in some very pleasant places — autumn woods, near stock tanks in dove season, and in blinds on the bays, rice fields and river bottoms frequented by waterfowl, for a few examples.