Mule-deer 115 



pounds weight were often taken. A doe killed in the Upper 

 Wind River, Wyoming, weighed, after bleeding, 1371 pounds 



fVtnter or blue coat.-Tht above Colorado buck was in colour 

 general of a warm brownish gray, thickly peppered with black 

 tips and rings on the individual hairs. The inside of legs the 

 belly, and patch on buttocks are white. The face and throat 

 are dull white with a large black patch on the forehead and a 

 black bar around the chin. The tail is white, except the bunch 

 on the tip, which IS black all around. The legs below the knees 

 and hocks are clear sienna brown. Sometimes the breast is 

 brownish black. 



This represents the blue coat; a month earlier it would 

 have been much darker and slatier. 



Summer or red coat.—Tht red coat appears in May and summer 

 IS worn till late August. It is rusty yellow rather than red; coaT 

 the head, tail, and legs change little with the season. 



The female is similar to the male, but duller. The fawn 

 IS dull yellowish, thickly spotted with white, as with the rest of 

 the family. 



Change of coat.~Tht change from the very red coat to change 

 the very blue is made in Colorado about the end of August °^ ''''^''' 

 The vigorous individuals are first to turn blue, the sickly last. 

 As the change is somewhat abrupt and irregular it results in 

 some very irregular effects and surprises. On September 3 

 1 saw a Deer in red coat except the head, which was in blue 

 On September 4 I startled a fawn out of a thicket. As he 

 passed into the open I saw that he was in bright red coat but 

 he took alarm, retreated into the thicket, and when he came out 

 on the other side he was in bright blue. This was neither an 

 optic illusion nor a lightning change. I found that he was all 

 blue on the left side and all red on the other. Possibly this was 

 a left-handed fawn that always lay on the left side, and so had 

 completely worn the coat off there before it was broken on the 

 right. 



This red coat is remarkably conspicuous in the woods. 

 It cannot be called protective, unless, perhaps, when the animal 

 IS among the red willows. 



