TOES 

 TICKS, 

 AND 

 DEER- 



90 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



of his enemy's distress, tried to kill the Fox, but in some un- 

 known way released it, and Reynard made good his escape. 



MosQui- Mosquitoes, ticks, and deer-flies are also among the 



foes of this Deer. Mosquitoes bother them just as they do us. 

 At times the Deer avoid these plagues by sinking themselves 

 FLIES in the mud and water. Blue-ticks of the genus Ixodes are 

 very troublesome; and G. M. Martin tells me that in the 

 Adirondacks during June and July he has often seen these 

 hanging on the Deer's legs, sucking their blood. The ticks 

 do not cause the Deer much annoyance, but must be a great 

 drain when present in large numbers. The deer-flies {Oest- 

 rus), however, are the most annoying of all these small en- 

 emies. 



Catesby says'^ (in 1731): "Near the sea the Deer are 

 always lean and ill-tasted, and subject to botts breeding in the 

 head and throat." The bott mentioned is the larva of the gad- 

 fly or deer-fly. Hunters assure me that this same complaint is 

 found among Deer in the north. 



R. Clark Fisk writes me that in Montana, on September 

 9, 1898, he "shot a young Whitetail buck whose horns were 

 in full velvet. He was fat, but in his liver I found two large 

 worms curled up. They were not unlike skin botts." 



In the country about MacDonald Lake, in the Adiron- 

 dacks, G. M. Martin tells me. Deer are often seen with warts 

 on the legs and belly. Some of those observed were an inch 

 across and one inch high. In the Rockies I found the Black- 

 tails much infested by hydatid cysts. I expect that the same 

 will prove true of the Whitetail. 



The following case is given by E. T. Merrill, of Reed 



City, Michigan:'' 



DISEASES "One fall a number of years ago a party hunting with me 



shot a yearling buck, and while we were trailing it up in a thick 



cedar swamp, we found, strung along the brush, what proved 



="'Nat. Hist. Car., Flor., Bah. Ids., II, 1731-43. 

 ^'Sports Afield, March, 1900, p. 228. 



