CHAPTER V 



THE BLACK-TAIL DEER 



FAR different from the low-scudding, brush-lov- 

 ing white-tail, is the black-tail deer, the deer of 

 the ravines and the rocky uplands. In general shape 

 and form, both are much alike ; but the black-tail is 

 the larger of the two, with heavier antlers, of which 

 the prongs start from one another, as if each of the 

 tines of a two-pronged pitchfork had bifurcated; 

 in some cases it looks as if the process had been again 

 repeated. The tail, instead of being broad and 

 bushy as a squirrel's, spreading from the base, and 

 pure white to the tip, is round and close haired, with 

 the end black, though the rest is white. If an ordi- 

 nary deer is running, its flaunting flag is almost its 

 most conspicuous part; but no one would notice the 

 tail of a black-tail deer. 



All deer vary greatly in size; and a small black- 

 tail buck will be surpassed in bulk by many white- 

 tails; but the latter never reaches the weight and 

 height sometimes attained by the former. The same 

 holds true of the antlers borne by the two animals; 

 on the average those of the black-tail are the heavier, 

 and exceptionally large antlers of this species are 

 larger than any of the white-tail. Bucks of both 



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