100 Merriarn — New North American Deer. 



date is Odocoileus.* This name was based on the second or third 

 (probably the third) left upper premolar of the Virginia deer, or a 

 closely related form, found in a cave near Carlisle, Pennsylvania. 

 Fortunately there is no room for doubt as to the animal to which 

 the tooth belonged, for Rafinesque described it in detail and pub- 

 lished natural-size figures of both outer and inner faces of the 

 tooth. Since the name Odocoileus was published 9 years earlier 

 than Dorcelaphus of Gloger, and 10 years earlier than Cariacus 

 Lesson, it appears to be the earliest generic name for the Amer- 

 ican deer of which 0. speleus Raf. [= 0. virginianus (Bodd.)] is 

 the type species. The earliest generic name for the South Ameri- 

 can deer of the group typified by Cervus rufus I have previously 

 shown to be Mazama Rafinesque, 1817. f 



Five new deer in the collection of the Biological Survey are 

 here described : Two of these, one from Sitka, Alaska, the other 

 from southern California, are northern and southern representa- 

 tives of the Columbia Blacktail (Odocoileus columbianus), to which 

 they are closely related ; the third, from Cerros Island, Mexico, 

 is a strongly marked insular species of the Mule Deer group, of 

 which Odocoileus hemionus is the type. The remaining two, from 

 southern Mexico, appear to be very distinct. 



Odocoileus columbianus sitkensis subsp. nov. 



Type from Sitka, Alaska, No. 74383, $ im., U. S. Nat. Mus., Biolog- 

 ical Survey Coll. Collected Aug. 8, 1895, by C. P. Streator. Original 

 No. 4707. 



Characters. — Similar to 0. columbianus, but smaller, with smaller skull 

 and teeth, and much shorter ears (in type: from anterior base 125; from 

 notch 105) ; black of upper side of tail replaced on basal half with ful- 

 vous hairs, like those of back. 



Color. — -Type specimen at end of summer (with patches of gray winter 

 coat coming in irregularly through worn red summer coat) : upper parts 

 from forehead to base of tail, including outer sides of legs and feet, ful- 

 vous; face grizzled gray, becoming pale dull fulvous inferiorly ; eyelids 

 black ; a Y-shaped mark extending from eyes half way to nose, dusky; 

 space between eyes grizzled fulvous and black ; ears grizzled gray and 

 dusky, not becoming blackish anteriorly ; inside of ears white. Chin and 

 under lip, except bar between angles of mouth, white; posterior part of 

 belly, inguinal region, inner side of thigh, and a disconnected strip along 

 posterior aspect of foreleg, white ; throat grayish fulvous ; rest of under 



* Atlantic Journal, vol. I, No. 3, p. 109, "Autumn of 1832." 

 t Science, NS, I, 208, Feb. 22, 1895. 



