114 THE DEER OF AMERICA. 



a deer. The real value of the sentence is in the last two lines, in 

 which the author says he had in his possession a small deer from 

 Yucatan (?) and Mexico, in wliich this gland was wanting, by 

 which we are enabled to recognize it with as much certainty as if 

 he had given the most elaborate description. In our deer this 

 gland is wanting also, which distinguishes it from all of the 

 smaller deer in this country. 



This exceedingly beautiful animal first attracted my attention 

 in Woodward's Gardens in San Francisco, where I found one 

 female. The next day I learned that Governor Latham had re- 

 ceived a specimen by the steamship Mepublic, and hastened to 

 his country residence at Menlo Park, where I had the good for- 

 tune to meet the Governor, who had the deer still in the cage, 

 which he at once told me to consider my own. Here I had an 

 opportunity to study her with all the leisure and care I desired. 

 I then turned her loose in his park to recruit, and examined the 

 rest of his herd of deer. I found he had six species : the wapiti, 

 the mule deer, the Columbia black-tailed deer, the Virginia 

 deer (called in the West the white-tailed or long-tailed deer), 

 this same Acapulco or South Mexican or Central American Deer 

 (some of which the keeper told me came from Panama, and some 

 from Southern Mexico), and one buck from the Island of Ceylon. 

 Here was a rare opportunity for study which I enjoyed. The 

 keeper took me to the remains of an Acapulco buck, the first ever 

 introduced to the park, which had lately died of old age, as he 

 said, and was now dried up, but was still susceptible of examina- 

 tion, at least in some important particulars. There was no mis- 

 taking its identity with the specimen just presented to me. 

 I secured the skin of the outside of one hind leg for microscopic 

 examination for the metatarsal gland, the antlers, and a part of 

 the skull attached, which are shown in the illustration. These 

 antlers differ so widely from any others with which I have ever 

 met or seen described or illustrated, that, if typical, they declare 

 a distinct species, were there not abundant other specific differ- 

 ences to attest the same truth. Under the proper head these will 

 be fully described, when they can be compared with the antlers 

 of the other species of deer. 



This deer is decidedly darker in color than the common deer, 

 with some important differences in the location of the white and 

 the dark portions, which will be particularly explained in the 

 proper place. 



Mr. Woodward presented me with one female of this species, 



