70 ZOOLOGY. 



Sp. Cii. — About the size of C. virginianus, or less. Horns doubly dichotomous, the forks nearly equal. Ears more than 

 half the length of the tail. Gland of the hind leg about one-sixth of the distance between the articulating surfaces of the 

 bone. Tail cylindrical, hairy and white beneath ; almost entirely black above. The under portion of the tip not black. 

 Winter coat with distinct yellowish chestnut annulation on a dark ground. Without white patch on the buttocks. There 

 is a distinct dusky horse-shoe mark on the forehead anterior to the eyes. 



The Columbian black-tailed deer is found in all parts of California, and is the only species of 

 which I could get any definite information in that State. Of the deer which I saw in California, 

 living and dead, amounting to some hundreds, all were unmistakably of this species. The 

 general colors, as given by Audubon, the black crescent on the forehead, the slender, dichoto- 

 mous horns of the male, the tail black above and white below, and not like that of the Virginian 

 deer elevated in running, but carried down and invisible — all served to mark the species dis- 

 tinctly, and to separate this from any deer I had seen. 



Near the coast the black-tailed deer probably extends to the British possessions, as I have seen 

 specimens from Cape Flattery and Puget's Sound, where it is common. It is also very abundant 

 in the Willamette valley, as well as in the valleys of the Umpqua and Rogue rivers. To the 

 eastward of the Cascade range it is rarely if ever seen, being there replaced by the mule deer 

 (C macrotis) and the white-tailed deer (C. virginianus?) In the interior basin, through which 

 the Des Chutes river flows, and on the eastern slope of the Cascades, a region comparatively 

 dry, sterile, and, in summer, hot, we found only the mule and white-tailed deers ; and in crossing 

 the Cascade range, we found only the Columbian black-tailed deer, and that very abundant. 



In size this species perhaps somewhat exceeds C. virginianus, but the difference in that respect 

 is not great. A full grown and fat buck will sometimes weigh two hundred pounds, but this is 

 a very unusual size ; the average weight of the buck may be set down at one hundred and twenty- 

 five pounds ; of the doe, at about one hundred pounds. 



The flesh of those brought into the San Francisco market seemed to me dry and tasteless, and 

 decidedly inferior to that of the Virginian deer, and such is, I think, the estimate generally put 

 upon it by the inhabitants of that city ; but a very large and fat buck, killed by our party on the 

 shores of Klamath lake, furnished us with venison which we voted was as tender, juicy, and 

 delicious as any we had ever tasted. It is barely possible, however, that abstinence and moun- 

 tain air in some degree qualified our estimate of its excellence. 



The colors of the black-tailed deer, of both the winter and summer coats, are brighter and 

 handsomer than those of the eastern species. 



The summer coat is composed of rather long and coarse hair, of a fulvous brown, approaching 

 chestnut on the back ; in the month of September this begins to come off, exposing what the 

 hunters call " the blue coat," which is, at first, short, fine and silky, and of a bluish grey, 

 afterwards becoming a chestnut brown, inclining to grey on the sides, and to black along the back. 

 Audubon was evidently mistaken in saying that there was no glandular opening on the leg 

 of this species, as I have found it a constant character in all the individuals which I examined 

 in California with reference to this mark. 



ANTILOCAPRA AMERICANA, Ord. 



The Prong-horned Antelope. 



Baird, Gen. Rep. Mammals, 1857, 666. 



To any one who has "crossed the plains" the prong-horned antelope can be no stranger. 

 Occupying the interior desert which lies between the "States" and California as its favorite 



