92 NOKTH AMEBICAN FAUNA [No. 55 



with larger horns, heavier skull (pi. 23, JB), longer tail, but very similar 

 coloration. Not so large or dark as boreatis. Winter pelage, upper parts 

 dark buffy gray, becoming bright ochraceous on top of tail, legs, and' edges of 

 belly; forehead and top of head dark brown; brisket dusky; eyelids, nose 

 pad, 3 spots on top and sides of nose and 2 on sides of lower lip black ; sides 

 of nose and eyering light gray; tip and lower surface of tail, belly, throat 

 patch, and lower lip, inside of ears, inside of legs to below heels and knees, 

 metatarsal and foot glands white. Summer coat (June 25 from Coeur d'Alene 

 Mountains) : Upper parts bright tawny or light bay, legs but little lighter, not 

 yellowish as in macrourus, and with no real black on top of tail as in macrourus 

 and borealis. Young spotted with white over back and sides. Skull very 

 similar to that of macrourus with about the same type of horns, larger, more 

 massive and with much heavier horns than in leucurus. 



Measurements. Type: Total length, 1,752 mm; tail, 265; hind foot, 483; 

 ear (dry), inside, 120, outside, base to tip, 150. Skull of type: Basal 

 length, approximately 275; nasals, 100; orbital width, 120; postorbital width, 

 105; brain case, 75; mastoid width, 91; upper molar series, 74; lower molar 

 series, 84. 



Distribution and habitat. This mountain valley form of the west- 

 ern white-tailed group apparently occupies the lake and stream val- 

 leys of Idaho, northwestern Montana, southeastern British Columbia, 

 and parts of eastern Washington and Oregon, east of the Cascades 

 (fig. 12). There are specimens from Buck Creek in Grant County, 

 and Davis Creek in the southwest corner of Crook County, that are 

 referred to this form. 



Until specimens of typical Odocoileus teucwus were recently ob- 

 tained by Jewett from near Koseburg, Oreg., the deer of eastern 

 Oregon, Idaho, and northwestern Montana were supposed to belong 

 to that species. Comparison of the material showed that this north- 

 ern Eocky Mountain valley deer is a well-marked form of the 

 white-tailed group. 



Lewis and Clark in 1805 and 1806 and Douglas in 1825 and 1826 

 recorded these deer along the west base of the Rocky Mountains, 

 but they included them with either leucurus or macrourus, in which 

 they were followed by later authors. Ogden in his journal of No- 

 vember 18, 1826, while on the Deschutes River, southeast of the 

 Paulina Mountains records "seven white-tailed deer brought in" 

 (1910, p. %10). Newberry (1857) in 1855 reported them on the 

 Deschutes (lat. 4327' and 4340'). Jewett and Murie collected 

 three specimens on Davis Creek, a branch of the upper Deschutes, 

 in January 1913, and 2 years later Jewett reported them along the 

 Metolius River west of the Deschutes, and on Mill Creek at the 

 northeast base of Mount Hood. In the John Day Valley he was 

 told that they were formerly very common throughout the valley, 

 and there were still a few in some of the more remote valleys north 

 and south of the river. He also reported them as formerly com- 

 mon In the Powder River Valley and along Pine Creek and gave 

 some reports of whitetails seen in recent years. In 1916 he saw 

 one in Fox Valley north of the John Day River. Preble and the 

 writer obtained reports of them in 1896 near Elgin in the Grand 

 Ronde Valley and saw one on the ridge west of the valley. Accord- 

 ing to numerous reports from Forest Service officials, hunters, and 

 residents, it appears that these deer were once an abundant species 

 throughout the valley and stream bottoms of the Blue Mountain 

 section, and there are evidently a few remaining in out-of-the-way 

 places. 



