1G4 NOTES ON CALIFORNIA ANIMALS. 



liowover, specially indebted to the Ibllow iii,u-ii;uned geutlenicii at whose 

 hands I had substantial favors: 



Messrs. Iloboit IJadclill" and L. W. GrecJi, in charj^c of tlie Go\ern- 

 ment lislieiies on ."McCloud liiver; Prof. Gilbert Thompson, in charge 

 toi>oi;iaiiliical division U. 8. Geological Survey; Mr. II. A. llawsou of 

 Ked Blnfj, and Mr. J. II. yisson of Strawberry Valley. 



T. — Ma:\dials. 



Family CKIiVID^E. Dkkiss. 



Caiiacus niacrotis (Say). AJiilc. Drvr. 



The i\Inle Deer was ft)nnd in comparative abundance along the east- 

 ern slope of the Sierra Nevadas in Northern California, but was not 

 observed west of that range. 



In the region east of Mount Shasta the Ulack-tailed Deer appeared 

 to be tiie prevailing species, the present one being only occasionally 

 met with, but in Lassen County, a hundred miles farther south, the 

 reverse was fonnd to be the case. Indeed, I saw notliing of the Black- 

 tailed Deer there, but the hunters witii whom I associated informed uie 

 that tlu'y sometimes killed stragglers of that species in the country 

 sloi)iug eastward from Mount Lassen. 



After several months' experience with the rather small Llack-tailed 

 Deer in Shasta (Joniity and elsewhere, the immense size of the present 

 species, as observed for the first time on the eastern slope of the mount- 

 ains, was quite a revelation, but nowhere in its range did the Mule Deer 

 appear to exist in as great nnmbei\s as did other species on the opposite 

 slope. The first one seen, an old buck, which had been alarmed by the 

 discharge of my shot gun when 1 little susi)ected the near presence of 

 su<;h game, si)rang from the bushes at my feet and tore off at such tre- 

 mendous sp(H'd and with such i)rodigious bounds and crash of chaparral, 

 that he seemed a different kind of deer altogether. AVlien running, 

 the white i)atch about the tail renders this species conspicuously ditl'er- 

 ent from the following one: 



Cariacus columbianvis (liicb.). Cohinthia Deer; JUack-laihd Deer. 



As mentioned in the account of the preceding species, the Black- 

 tailed Deer, which has hitheito been considered as confined strictly to 

 the Pacific slope, is known to occur in many places low down on the 

 eastern sIojjc of the Sierras. Its eastward range in general is, however, 

 bounded by these mountains, showing its singularly narrow belt of dis- 

 tribution. In the case of this animal, where chmate and food can 

 hardly be taken into consideration, such remarkable limits are inex])H- 

 cable. As expicssed by Judge (Jaton: "An imaginary line which be- 

 comes as impassable as a Chinese wall to an entire species of animals 

 who have full ])hysi(;al power to traver.se it, but do not, wiiile all others 

 pass it uidiesitatingly, is certainly a (uirious ami interesting fac^;," 



