Whitetailed Deer 83 



Indian River, in Schoolcraft County, Michigan. One day, when 

 the party was out, ravens were noticed hovering noisily over a 

 certain spot and, attracted by curiosity, the hunters sought the 

 cause. Emerging into a comparatively open space in the wood, 

 they made a discovery. For the space of nearly an acre the 

 ground was torn and furrowed by the hoofs of two bucks, and 

 near the centre of the open space lay the bucks themselves, with 

 their horns inextricably locked (Fig. 29). One of the Deer 

 was dead, and the hungry ravens had eaten both his eyes, 

 though deterred from further feasting by the occasional spas- 

 modic movements of the surviving combatant, whose eyes were 

 already glazing." 



I remember reading an account of a hunter finding two 

 bucks thus locked— one dead, the other near death. He was 

 a humane man, so went home for a saw and cut the living one 

 free. The moment it felt at liberty it turned its feeble remain- 

 ing strength on its deliverer, and he had much ado to save his 

 own life before he could regain his rifle and lay the ingrate low.^^ 



Audubon and Bachman telP* of three bucks whose antlers 

 were thus interlocked. In the New York State Museum is 

 shown a portion of a tree with the antler of a Deer driven 

 through it, or, more.likely, an antler with the tree grown around 

 it (Fig. 18). 



The feet are much less subject to aberration than the freak 



FOOT 



horns, but Dr. E. Coues has described'' a solid-hoofed Virginian 

 Deer that was sent him by George A. Boardman, of Calais, Me. 

 In this freak the two central or main hoofs were consolidated 

 as one. A somewhat similar peculiarity has often been seen 

 in pigs, but never before recorded for the Whitetailed Deer. 



There is a tendency to albinism among the Deer in some albj- 

 parts of the country. This appears usually on islands and 

 isolated districts, where it seems to be a consequence of in- 



^' I am unable now to find the record and give due credit for the story. 

 ^"Quad. N A., 1849, Vol. II, p. 224. 



"-^Bull. U. S. Geol. Survey, Notes Herpet. Dak. Mont., Feb. 5, 1878, Art. XII, 

 pp. 293-4. 



NISM 



