78 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



plentiful that lo to the square mile would have been a very- 

 low estimate indeed, and 20 would be a safe rate for the 

 region. The guides claimed that in favourite localities there 

 were as many as 200 Deer to the square mile. 



But the accounts of the hunters put the Whitetail, in point 

 of numbers, far in advance of all other small Deer. Therefore, 

 I feel satisfied that in primitive times 10 to the square mile is 

 a safe estimate of Whitetailed population in its most favourable 

 region — the immediate Mississippi Valley and the country to 

 the east of it. This area was roughly 2,000,000 square miles. 

 That is to say, it was the home of not less than 20,000,000 

 Whitetailed Deer. 



Although the map of to-day shows a wide distribution, 

 the distribution is on a very different basis from that of two 

 hundred years ago. The Adirondacks, northern New Eng- 

 land, northern Michigan, north-eastern Texas, and the dry 

 parts of Florida (aggregating 100,000 square miles) may yet 

 show an average of 3 Deer to the square mile. But we 

 must consider the species as practically absent now from Ohio, 

 Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Kentucky, the 

 northern half of Missouri, and the southern halves of Minne- 

 sota, Wisconsin, Michigan, New York, and Ontario, a total 

 area of about 600,000 square miles of their best country. 

 Moreover, the rest of the region shown as inhabited by White- 

 tail in present times is so sparsely supplied that i Deer to 

 5 square miles would be a liberal estimate. These figures 

 would make the entire Whitetail population north of the Rio 

 Grande somewhere about 500,000. 



The State of Maine, therefore, has now one-fifth of the 

 Deer in the country. This is because she has learned that they 

 are worth preserving. 



ANTLERS In the genus Odocoileus there are two well-marked types 



of antlers, as shown in Fig. 16. These represent average 

 horns of full-grown bucks. In general style the Coast Deer 

 antlers resemble those of the Mule-deer, but are more 



