THE BLACK-TAILED AND VIRGINIA DEER. 335 



on in winter. This variety is said to be new to the coun- 

 try, and Indians report that it was not known until a short 

 time previous to the advent of the white man. When first 

 discovered by the Indian hunters they were astonished, and 

 refused to kill it, thinking it was the wandering spirit of 

 some man or woman transformed into a deer for transgres- 

 sions committed while on earth ; and many of them even 

 now hold the same opinion, and would not injure it on any 

 account. When the medicine-men and prophets heard of 

 the new animal they began their incantations to learn what 

 it signified; and some of them deduced therefrom that a 

 white race of men would soon appear, and that, like the 

 white deer, they would be cautious, vigilant, and hard to 

 kill, and would finally prevail by numerical superiority. 

 This legend is distributed among several tribes in the 

 North-west, so it would seem that it has been in existence 

 for many years. The creature, for all that, is rather scarce, 

 and has by no means kept pace with the increase of the 

 race of men to whom the red prophets have allied it. It is 

 more abundant in the Siskiyou Mountains, which separate 

 Oregon and California, and in the Cascade Range, than in 

 any other portions of the country, its favorite haunts being 

 the higher plateaux of these chains. Very little is known 

 of its habits, but they, apparently, do not differ from those 

 of the other deer. 



The Virginia deer, the typical species of the Atlantic 

 States, is abundant in some portions of the West and 

 South-west, and large numbers are killed annually by In- 

 dians, market and pot-hunters, and sportsmen. These are 

 stalked, hunted with hounds, or shot from stages erected 

 near the trails they make during their migrations from one 

 section of the country to another. Some naturalists con- 

 sider this and the white -tail to be the same species, the 

 difference between them not being sufficient to entitle them 

 to particular distinction ; hence the latter is considered to 

 be only a variety of the former, if it is not the same animal 

 changed a little by climate and the character of country 

 it frequents. The difference is so slight, certainly, that it 



