CHAPTER III 



THE COLUMBIA BLACKTAIL 



With the exception of a few Virginia deer in 

 southern Arizona, which belong really to Sonora, 

 the deer of the entire western slope of the con- 

 tinental divide has a shorter tail than the Vir- 

 ginia deer, with black hairs in the end. In most 

 of them the tail is short, with a tuft of hair, mostly 

 black, at the end. As the tail is not carried up, 

 but droops over the white rump so as to make 

 the black show plainly, all the deer of the Pacific 

 coast and the interior basin to the Rocky Moun- 

 tains are called the " blacktail " by way of distinc- 

 tion from the Virginia deer, which, over all that 

 range, is called the " whitetail." 



But there is a plain difference between the deer 

 of the southern half of California and those of the 

 northern half. The latter inhabit the whole coast 

 west of the crest of the Sierra Nevada, while the 

 deer of the southern half run the whole length 

 of Lower California (Mexico). The dividing line 

 between the two is not easy to define, but it is a 

 strip of fifty to seventy miles wide about the 

 centre of the state. The deer of the southern 

 half is called the mule-deer by those who know 

 the difference, and those of the north the black- 



226 



