74 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



were exterminated in New England, except in the remote north 

 woods. Now they have re-possessed the whole country, even 

 to the gates of New York City. Within the last year wild 

 Deer have been seen about Greenwich, Conn., and even in 

 Yonkers, N. Y. Northward the species has extended as far 

 as latitude 50 degrees at least, in Algoma, and is likely to con- 

 tinue advancing till it reaches Hudson's Bay. 

 IN MANi- The map (No. 5) shows sufficiently the general range and 

 ™^"^ the range of the species in Manitoba. Its distribution here is 

 that of a southern and eastern species that is forcing its way in, 

 really following settlement toward the North-west. In 1800 

 it was unknown about Pembina, if we may judge by its con- 

 tinual omission from the yearly reports of Alex. Henry. In 

 1820 it had not yet appeared. When, in 1874, Dr. E. Coues 

 explored the Pembina region it was still without Whitetail. 

 The earliest accounts I can find are for 1881, about which time, 

 according to many old Manitobans, the ** Down-East Deer" 

 first made its appearance. 



This accords with the date when first the upper Red River 

 Valley (or Minnesota) was well settled. From that time the 

 creature has spread steadily, as shown by the successive en- 

 croachments indicated on the map. 



HOME How large is the home locality of a Whitetail .? Smaller, 



probably, than that of any other of the family in America. A 

 Moose or a Mule Blacktail may pass the whole of a summer on 

 a square mile. According to Audubon and Bachman^" a White- 

 tail "is usually found in the same range or drive, as it is called, 

 and often not fifty yards from the place where it was started 

 before." These same naturalists remark with surprise on 

 their finding a band of Deer that bedded at one place and fed 

 nightly at another "nearly two miles off," and on a third case 

 of Deer that daily covered four or five miles between bed and 

 board. These, however, are very exceptional cases. 



All the guides that I have consulted agree with me in 

 giving the individual Whitetail a very limited range. In the 



'" Aud. and Bach., Quad. N. A., Vol. II, p. 222. 



