ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN. 



533 



;ted by Carl Runcius. 



WHITE-TAILED DEER 



THE WILD ANIMALS OF HUDSON'S DAY. 



PART II.^THE MAMMALS* 



THE wild mammals today inhabiting the 

 Hudson valley are but a pitiful remnant of 

 the original stock that flourished here three 

 hundred years ago. Head by head, they rep- 

 resent merely the individuals that man, the cruel 

 annihilator, has not been shrewd enough to find 

 and kill. They do indeed represent the sur- 

 vival of the fittest in "civilized" environment. 

 Think of a civilization so cruel that it must 

 curb, by the stern hand of the Law, many of its 

 members from killing does and fawns, from 

 slaughtering gray squirrels and song birds for 

 "food," from robbing birds' nests, and exter- 

 minating wild life, generally. 



So far as wild life is concerned, there are no 

 greater savages, living or dead, than five per 

 cent, of the people who wear the garb of "civil- 

 ization." 



*A!1 the illustrations reproduced with this article 

 are from "The Ajiericax Natural Histouy," copy- 

 right, 190-1, by William T. Hornaday, and appear here 

 by the permission of the publishers, Messrs. Charles 

 Scribner's Sans. 



We repeat that every wild animal now alive 

 in tlie state of New York owes its existence to 

 its own skill in hiding, and in living in defiance 

 of dangers and difficulties. The only species 

 that has been for even a score of vears under the 

 law's protection is tlie White - Tailed Deer, 

 or Virginia Deer, which, but for its marvel- 

 ous cunning and skill in woodcraft would long 

 ago have been exterminated with the elk and 

 moose that once inhabited the Adirondacks. 



Of course the White-Tailed Deer flourished 

 abundantly in the days of the "Half-Moon." 

 We can imagine that almost anywhere along the 

 Hudson where the banks were generously 

 planted with brush and timber, three centuries 

 ago a hunter could have landed on the shore and 

 in an hour brought back a deer. Even during 

 the past two years, two wild White-Tails have 

 been caught alive while swimming in the Hud- 

 son River, and one is now on exhibition in the 

 Zoological Park. 



So far as we know, the only wild game of the 

 Hudson valley that came aboard the "Half- 



