Mule Deer 



animal approaching the moose in build, but such a conception is 

 erroneous. The mule deer, like the jack-ass rabbit, owes its name 

 not to its shape but to its enormous ears, which as we know are the 

 most characeristic feature of the mule. 



Though but little exceeding the Virginia deer in height, the 

 present species is a heavier, more coarsly built animal with shorter 

 legs and with very different antlers. 



It inhabits usually the rough broken country but often ascends to 

 the higher valleys and plateaus of the mountains. Besides its peculiar- 

 ities of structure the mule deer has a distinctive gait. Instead of the 

 continuous easy springs of the Virginia deer it proceeds by a jerky 

 series of bounds, all four legs apparently touching the ground 

 together, or to quote from Lewis and Clarke who first discovered the 

 species: " It does not lope but jumps." 



The range of the mule deer is quite extensive through the West, 

 and as will be seen below, the Southern representatives form distinct 

 varieties. 



The mule deer was one of those many Western novelties which 

 Audubon and his companions met with on their memorable journey 

 up the Missouri River in 1843. He says of his first sight of it: "On 

 winding along the banks, bordering a long and wide prairie, 

 intermingled with willows and other small brushwood, we suddenly 

 came in sight of four mule deer which, after standing a moment on 

 the bank and looking at us, trotted leisurely away, without appear- 

 ing to be much alarmed. After they had retired a few hundred yards, 

 the two largest, apparently males, elevated themselves on their hind 

 legs and pawed each other in the manner of the horse. They 

 occasionally stopped for a moment, then trotted off again, appearing 

 and disappearing from time to time, when becoming suddenly 

 alarmed they bounded off at a swift pace until out of sight. They 

 did not trot or run as irregularly as our Virginia deer, and they 

 appeared at a distance darker in colour." 



As time went on and settlers and hunters spread over the great 

 West the mule deer became a familiar animal, distinguished by all 

 from the Virginia deer by its curious gait, its equally forking antlers 

 and its black tail; the latter giving rise over a large part of its range to 

 the name "black-tailed deer," an appellation belonging more strictlv 

 to the animal of the Columbia River region of the Pacific Coast. As 

 a game animal it is held by many to be unsurpassed. Mr. A. G. 

 Wallihan says of this species: "For me, at least, there is a charm 



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