76 ZOOLOGY. 



" During the past season, that portion of Lieutenant Wheeler's party to 

 which I was attached, operating in Southern Arizona, found a small deer 

 quite abundant there. The skins obtained have not yet [i. e., had not then] 

 reached Washington. There can be but little doubt, however, that they 

 will prove the much desired Dwarf Sonora Deer. 



"I may as well state at the' outset that zoologists are in doubt as to 

 whether Cervus mexicamts (Gmeliu) is a valid species, or whether it is a 

 dwarf southern form of our common Virginia Red Deer. It is well known 

 that such a decrease in size as we proceed south is not unusual among mam- 

 mals. Notwithstanding this fact, I am inclined to think the deer in question 

 will yet prove distinct from the Red Deer. This, however, is a matter for 

 zoologists to settle. 



" Taking the longitude of Mount Graham and going south from this 

 point to the boundary between Arizona and Sonora, we find it nowhere 

 rare, and in some places quite common. It ranges as far north as the valley 

 of the Gila River, and may, indeed, reach a point still farther north ; but it 

 is evidently supplanted in the White Mountains of Arizona by the ordinary 

 White-tailed Deer. I find in the volume already cited, the range of Cervus 

 mexicanus given as "the Gadsden line" on the north, and the woody mountain 

 region south as far as the city of Mexico, or a range just such as we might 

 expect for the deer of our collection. There is, however, a slight discrepancy 

 in the measurements of Dr. Kennerly and myself; his doe weighing "not 

 over seventy pounds", while the largest of three does shot by myself did not 

 exceed sixty, and the smallest adult doe (whose udder was distended with 

 milk) would hardly reach forty pounds. I did shoot one large and very 

 poor doe, weighing- nearly ninety pounds ; but this was so evidently an 

 ordinary White-tail, that I do not include it in what I may say regarding 

 the smaller form. Neither of two fat, four-prong bucks that I killed exceeded 

 seventy pounds in weight, The measurements taken by me will suffice to 

 show that there is a much less difference in height between our deer and the 

 Dwarf Deer than there is in girth. In fact, the latter is much more light and 

 airy in all its movements. It stands up so well, however, that the hunter, 

 shooting at it for the first time, might readily enough take it 1o be the 

 \ irginia Deer. On cutting the meat from the bones preparatory to jerking 



