Whitetailed Deer 73 



appears in the woods. The tail and disk are totally different 

 in each species. If every sportsman would bring the tail of his 

 Deer (or failing that, make a sketch of it), with a note of its 

 length, and the locality where he found it, we could tell with 

 fair certainty the species he had got or seen. 



One Thomas Hariot, an English mathematician in the dis- 



r'DVPRV 



service of Sir Walter Raleigh, visited Virginia in 1584. In his 

 account of the colony he says:" 



'Of* * * Deare, in some places there are great store; 

 neare to the sea-coast, they are of the ordinairie bignes as 

 ours in England, and some less; but further up in the coun- 

 trey where there is better feed, they are greater. They differ 

 from ours only in this, their tailes are 'longer, and the snags 

 of their homes look backwards." 



There is no doubt that Cartier saw the Whitetail at Mon- 

 treal in 1535, but Master Hariot, the mathematician, has given 

 us the first identifiable description of the species. It is there- 

 fore with reason called the "Virginian Deer." 



Life-history. 



Since then we have traced the animal throughout its range 

 entire range, and naturalists have discriminated between the 

 various species and races, as set forth on the accompanying 

 map (No. 5). 



This map illustrates an interesting fact in Whitetail 

 distribution: that while the species has lost much territory 

 in the East and in the centre of its range, it has gained a great 

 deal in the North and West. The reason for this will be seen 

 in its habits, especially in its adaptability to agricultural con- 

 ditions. 



Had the map been made in 1890 instead of 1900, it would 

 have given a still smaller range; for, as stated elsewhere, 1890 

 seems to have been the low-ebb year for most of our game 

 animals east of the Mississippi. Twenty years ago the Deer 



•Thomas Hariot, Virginia, 1585-6; Stevens Reprint, 1900, p. 39. 



