8 Field Museum of Natural History 



pronounced forward curve and the points all rise from 

 the back and top of these beams almost perpendicu- 

 larly. The pair of points nearest the base of the beams 

 are much longer and more upright than in other Am- 

 erican deer. The number of points is variable but nor- 

 mally a full grown buck has five or six well-developed 

 points on each side, making ten or twelve in all. Ab- 

 normal heads may have several times as many, and in 

 very unusual cases there have been known to be as 

 many as seventy-eight points. 



The Whitetail, especially in the northern part of 

 its range, often finds the winter season a great hard- 

 ship. The deep snows do not prevent it from feeding, 

 for it is able to browse upon twigs and to paw the snow 

 away to secure other food in protected places ; but snow 

 interferes greatly with its freedom of movement and 

 makes it an easy prey to its arch enemy, the wolf. 

 When the snow is deep, the deer range within very nar- 

 row limits and beat down paths which are followed day 

 after day until a space of several acres may be covered 

 with a network of them. Such places are called "yards" 

 and the deer may congregate in one of them in num- 

 bers from two or three to a dozen or more. When 

 forced to leave the yard by dogs or wolves they floun- 

 der in the drifts and are easily overtaken. When the 

 snow is slightly hardened on the surface, a form of 

 hunting called "crusting" is sometimes practiced by 

 meat hunters with snowshoes which support them 

 while the deer with their sharp hoofs break through 

 at every leap. Needless to say, crusting is considered 

 quite unsportsmanlike. 



Among the different varieties of the Whitetail 

 found in the United States there is much variation in 

 size. The northern variety is much the largest, and 

 full grown bucks from northern New England, Mich- 

 igan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota will average slightly 



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