650 U. S. P. R. R. EXP. AND SURVEYS ZOOLOGY GENERAL REPORT. 



ears are uniformly brownish gray, lined and pointed somewhat with dusky, the concavity and 

 the hasal portion behind being white. The under part of the neck, from the white patch 

 beneath the head to between the fore legs, is of the same brownish gray, with a slight sooty 

 tinge posteriorly ; the rest of the under parts to the tail are opaque white. The under part of 

 the tail and the region around the anus are also white, but apparently less conspicuously so 

 than in C. virginianus. The upper surface of the tail is of a uniform reddish brown, brighter 

 than elsewhere on the body. The legs are of a nearly uniform pale brownish yellow, rather 

 lighter internally. 



In another specimen, (1886,) killed about the same time, there is rather more fulvous in the 

 yellowish brown and gray tints, approximating the colors somewhat to those of C. columbianus. 

 Specimens from the upper Missouri agree in most respects, but are still grayer ; indeed, the 

 color of the back is exactly that of a Cervus macrotis, killed at the same time. 



There is no old animal of this species before me in full summer dress. A female from the 

 Republican Fork, possibly a true C. virginianus, is of rather a lighter red than in the eastern 

 specimens. The fawns are spotted much as those of C. virginianus. In no one of the many 

 specimens before me is there anything of the dusky ring below the chin, the nearest approach 

 being in the small dusky spot on each side. 



In the preceding description I have proceeded on the supposition that the animals described 

 are specifically distinct from the C. virginianus. In placing a series side by side of each, there 

 are certainly very appreciable differences, some of which have been already referred to. The 

 size is about the same. The fur of the Rocky Mountain animal is much closer and more 

 compact, and appears somewhat finer. The peculiar waves of dusky I have not seen in the 

 C. virginianus. The colors are much paler throughout, more like those of C. macrotis. The 

 legs appear to be more slender ; the hoofs narrower and longer. The nearly immaculate 

 chin is a strong feature, this region being without the black ring bordered behind by 

 reddish. The ears are more uniformly gray. The horns, tail, and gland of the metatarsus 

 are very similar in both, and exhibit nothing distinctive. 



The horns of this animal resemble very closely those of C. virginianus from the eastern portion 

 of the United States. There is a basal snag starting from the inner face of the horn, about 

 three inches from the base. All the snags above this spring from the posterior edge of the 

 horn, those of opposite sides corresponding to each other in the two horns, sometimes nearly 

 parallel, sometimes convergent. There are usually three of these posterior snags, equidistant 

 and diminishing in length successively, the terminal one about as long as the end of the main 

 stem. This bends abruptly a little before it reaches the middle ; the two branches of the 

 curve nearly straight. 



The horns are more inclined to have three posterior snags than in C. virginianus. In extreme 

 age the horn becomes more compressed and the warts towards the base very prominent. As a 

 general rule there is a much greater diversity of form here than in the C. virginianus, as will 

 be seen from the accompanying wood-cuts, which are far from exhausting all the varieties in 

 the Smithsonian collection. One of these, figure 17, is from Puget's Sound, and belongs to the 

 typical C. leucurus. It is in some respects quite different from the others, and may be distinct. 



