1 899] 47 



BRITISH COLUMBIAN DEER. 



The following letter from Mr. J. A. Teit of Spence's Bridge, 

 B. C. is of interest both to the naturalist and the sportsman. Mr. 

 Teit has lived in British Columbia for 15 years, is a careful 

 observer and has had abundant opportunity for studying the 

 animals of that province : — "There are three or four varieties of 

 Western Deer known to me which are distinguishable chiefly by 

 their tails. Now here in the interior there is : — 



1st. A deer of large size, one of the largest, if not the 

 largest, variety wc have. Some of the old bucks have very 

 large and thick horns, probably their horns grow to a larger size 

 and are thicker than those of any other variety we have. The 

 face is generally slightly concave although with some the reverse 

 is the case. At the same season of the year there are two 

 shades of color to be observed amongst them ; some are more 

 greyish others more brownish. Their tail is zvhite all around 

 from the root dozun to tJie tip which is black. They arc the 

 commonest deer throughout the North Western portion of 

 the "Dry Belt" (the Thompson, Bonaparte, Chilcoten, &c.) 

 and are also very common in the Similkameen, the Okanagan, 

 and in some parts of Kootenay. Some people call them 

 Mule Deer. Others call them Black-tail and some call them 

 American Deer. 



2nd. A deer almost the same as the first and equal or nearly 



equal in size. Color of the body the same and ears just as long. 



The under part and the sides of the tail are white from the root 



down to the tip, which is black. The back or outer part of the 



tail is of the same color as the body and this stripe is coutijuious 



from the body until it joins the black tip. With some of them 



this stripe on the back of the tail is ve7y narrow (about half an 



inch or less in width.) These deer are not so common in the Dry 



Belt as the first variety but are found along with them in most 



places. They are found on the Thompson, Bonaparte and 



Eraser rivers as far down as the canyon or even below, ako around 



Lillooet and probably in most parts of the interior where the first 



