MAMMALS OF THE MEXICAN BOUNDARY. 197 



mule deer having horns in the velvet to my camp ;it Bakers Butte, 

 in the Mogollon Mountains. This head was scut to the American 

 Museum of Natural History in New York. 



More common than horned females are the "cactus bucks." emas- 

 culated males in which the horns, if shed, are not again renewed, or, 

 if with horns, retain them permanently in the velvet with remark- 

 able distortions. Of these I have examined live individuals in 

 central Arizona and two in southwestern New Mexico. All were 

 without testicles. In No. L65, Mearns's collection, killed January 20, 

 L885, on Beaver ('reek. Verde Valley, central Arizona, osseous ped- 

 icles for the support of horn- were developed but entirely overgrown 

 by skin and short hair; and, as usual, the testicles were absent. 

 The remaining six had snaggy, scragged horns, more or less coated 

 with withered velvet. In shape the horns varied from an intricate 

 mass of radiating prongs to single crooked spikes with a cluster of 

 lesser ones at the base, no two being alike even on the same head. 

 Specimen No. 612, skin and skull. Mearns's collection, in the American 

 Museum of Natural History. New York, shot by me at Bakers Butte, 

 central Arizona. August 3, 1887, is a good example of a "cactus" 

 buck. It had four good sized teats and no testicles. Cactus bucks 

 are usually fat and are considered superior to others, the meat being 

 good at all seasons. 



Weight. — The weight of old males of the Arizona mule deer was 

 estimated at 175 to 220 pounds by Maj. Charles E. Bendire, who had 

 much experience in the early seventies, when stationed in the field 

 with troops at old Fort Lowell, near Tucson, The estimate is based 

 on specimens actually weighed and agrees with the slender data that 

 I am able to present in the accompanying table (p. 208). The weight 

 of an adult male (No. 612, Mearns's collection), killed July 2C>, lss7. 

 at Bakers Butte, Mogollon Mountains, central Arizona, was estimated 

 at 150 pounds, as it weighed 105 pounds after bleeding, evisceration, 

 and removal of its four feet. 



Habits (did local distribution. — In central Arizona the mule deer 

 ranges upward in summer to the highest boreal summits of the Ter- 

 ritory and down in winter to the lowest valleys, when the mountains 

 are frozen and covered with snow. The young are born on the sum- 

 mer range in the mountains and on the higher mesas, but I am not 

 able to determine the exact time of year, except that I saw a doe and 

 fawn near Fort Verde in the middle of July, 1884. Of seven females 

 brought in to our cam}) at Monument No. 15, about 50 miles wesl 

 of the Rio Grande. March 20 to April 7. 1802, two were pregnant, 

 containing a single fetus each. Mr. Charles Ryall brought twin 

 fawns, in the spotted coat, to Fort Verde from the Black Hills, near 

 Jerome, in Yavapai County, Arizona. October 1, 1887. I saw two 



