1936] MAMMALS OF OREGON 93 



In 1916 William F. Schnabel, of Caldwell, Idaho, wrote to the Bio- 

 logical Survey that in 1880 he saw two white-tailed deer on top of 

 the Mahogany Mountains, in eastern Malheur County, the only ones 

 he ever saw there, although he had seen hundreds of them on the 

 Snake River Plains in Idaho. 



At Klamath Falls a Mr. Moore, an old resident, told the writer 

 of killing a white-tailed deer near Fort Klamath about 1885. There 

 are also records of deer south and west of Lower Klamath Lake that 

 may be provisionally placed under this subspecies. 



In the California Academy of Science collection are a pair of old 

 white-tailed deer antlers from Ashland, Oreg., collected by William 

 C. Butler in 1898, and labeled, in B. W. EvermamVs handwriting, 

 ki old horns from the wall." These are typical heavy, rough antlers 

 of 0. v. ocJwawrus and may well have been brought from Davis 

 Creek or anywhere, but they are not the O. v. leucwrus type of antlers. 

 Two other pairs of interlocked antlers in the academy collection, nos. 

 5579 and 5580, are labeled " eastern Oregon, bequest of Tom C. Grant, 

 March 12, 1926." They seem to be typical O. v. ochrourus. They are 

 old and yellow and may have been picked up long ago, possibly in 

 the John Day River country. 



Another very important pair of antlers in the academy collection 

 comes from Modoc County, Calif., well below the Oregon line labeled 

 " South Fork of Pit River in the Warner Mountains. No. 877, John 

 Rowley collection, collected October 1911, by L. H. Sisson, of 

 Alturas." They are heavy rough antlers with heavy base and long 

 brow points of typical 0. v. ochrourios and mark the southernmost 

 point from which specimens have been examined. 



General habits. There is very little on record of the habits of these 

 deer in Oregon, except that they are found mainly in thickets and 

 willow bottoms along the streams and valleys. In recent years they 

 are sometimes found back in the hills, crowded back probably by 

 settlements. Like most of their group they are secretive and would 

 rather hide than run. In the more extensive thickets and forests of 

 Idaho and Montana they are still abundant in favorable locations, 

 but over much of their ranges they are doomed to be crowded out by 

 settlements, or killed by predatory animals as they gather on winter 

 ranges and are easily pulled down by coyotes and dogs in the deep 

 snows. 



ORDER LAGOMORPHA: RABBITS AND CONIES 



Family LEPORIDAE: Rabbits and Hares 

 LEPUS AMERICANUS BAIRDII HAYDEN 



ROOKY MOUNTAIN SNOWSHOE HARE 



Lepus bairan Hayden, Amer. Nat. 3 : 115, 1869. 



Type locality. Near Fremont Peak, Wind River Mountains, Wyo. 



General characters. In size intermediate between the cottontails and the 

 jack rabbits, ears moderately long, feet large and hairy, tail small, not con- 

 spicuously white underneath. Summer coat, upper parts rusty gray, with 

 much black on rump, back, and ears; belly, chin, inside of legs, feet, edges of 

 ears, and sometimes speck on crown, white. Winter coat usually pure white, 

 with sometimes a trace of gray or buffy over head; back of ear tips dusky. 

 Young are grayish brown, without much white. 



