THE GAME ANIMALS OF CANADA 41 
as long as two months, but by the middle of December the 
mating fury subsides, and bucks, does, and their fawns of 
that year wander the woods together until the deepening 
snows circumscribe their movements and confine them to 
‘“‘yards” of well-trodden snow, from which paths radiate 
to their chosen feeding-grounds. Deep snow is a calamity 
to the deer, and their wanderings are limited until the ad- 
vent of warm days in the spring releases them and permits 
the resumption of the separate life of the sexes. When 
the bucks are in their prime they may weigh as much as 
300 pounds. 
Abundance.—The white-tailed deer is the most abundant 
larger-game animal throughout its range in Canada, par- 
ticularly in the east. In the early days it was the chief 
source of meat, and, in many cases, of clothing, and many a 
settler has been saved from starvation by the presence of 
this animal. 
Formerly it did not occur in a large part of the region 
in eastern Canada that it now occupies. From its original 
home in the south it has followed the settlers into our north- 
ern woods. 
It has been generally believed that the white-tailed deer 
did not formerly exist in Nova Scotia. Recently, however, 
bones of this deer have been found in two widely separated 
prehistoric Indian shell-heaps by archeologists of the 
Canadian Geological Survey.* Toe bones were found in a 
shell-heap near Mahone Bay, by Mr. W. J. Wintemberg, 
in 1913, and a toe bone was also found in a shell-heap on 
Merigomish harbour, on the north coast, by Mr. Harlan 
I. Smith, in 1914. Other bones, supposedly of the same 
species, have also been found in these heaps. These dis- 
coveries indicate the existence of the white-tailed deer in 
Nova Scotia in prehistoric times. The absence of deer 
made it necessary to introduce them into Nova Scotia. 
*Science, N. 8., Vol. 49, No. 1275, p. 540, June 6, 1919. 
