56 REPORT OF NEW JERSEY STATE MUSEUM. 
Genus OpocoILEus Rafinesque. 
Odocoileus virginianus (Boddert). 
Virginia Deer. 
PLATES 14 AND I5. 
Length, 6 feet. Height at the shoulder, 3 feet. lWenethvor 
antler, 20 to 24 inches. Color, bright chestnut in summer with a 
black band on the chin; throat, under parts and inside of legs, 
white; tail, brownish above, white beneath. In winter the upper 
parts are yellowish gray with white about the eye. Antlers curv- 
ing outward and then upward; there is a short upright spike near 
the base, beyond which the beam gives off two upright branches 
making three nearly equal prongs. 
The deer is an animal of the forests and open glades, once 
abundant all over eastern America, it has become nearly or quite 
exterminated in many sections through the clearing of the 
country, and the greed of lawless hunters. ‘Tolerance on the part 
of the hunters and wise protective legislation may re-establish 
these graceful animals, as has been recently proved in compara- 
tively thickly settled sections of New England. 
The deer rut in the autumn, and the fawns, usually two, are 
born in May or June. They are tawny colored little fellows 
spotted with white, and lay concealed in the grass or fern beds 
until the female comes to suckle them. In animals that I have 
observed in deer parks this takes place after dark. When rutting 
the bucks have fierce encounters, and sometimes their antlers be- 
come firmly interlocked in which position they remain until they 
succumb to starvation, being unable either to eat or drink. One 
buck has several does under his protection, and in winter, when 
the snow is deep, deer associate in small herds and tramp out 
paths or “yards” in the thickets. They feed at different times of 
the year on buds, leaves, grass, ferns, small herbs, berries, etc. 
The Virginia deer has been separated into two varieties, a 
northern and southern form, and Mr. Rhoads includes both 
among the mammals of New Jersey, allotting the southern 
