DEER 



1739 



DEER 



DEER, a family of 

 forest-loving,fleet-footed 

 and antlered (horned) 

 animals, slender of limb 

 and with brown eyes 

 large and questioning. 

 To the deer belong the 

 elk, a noble game ani- 

 mal ; the reindeer, puller 

 of Northern sledges ; 

 the caribou, the moose 

 and the wapiti, each of which is de- 

 scribed in these volumes under its 

 individual title. Deer are widely dis- 

 tributed over the world, though there 

 are none in Australia and few in 

 Africa, the antelope corresponding to 

 the deer in the latter continent. 



Distinguishing Characteristics. All 

 male deer, also called stags, bucks or 

 harts, have solid, branching horns, or 

 antlers, which they shed each year. 

 Excepting reindeer, female deer, known as hinds or 

 does, do not bear antlers, nor do the young, which 

 are known as jawns. Antlers are outgrowths from 

 bone and are at first very sensitive, being covered 

 with flesh and velvety skin. When the antlers are 

 fully developed, the skin dries and is removed by 

 rubbing against trees, leaving bare bones. These 

 are valued by man as trophies of the hunt, for um- 

 brella handles, and sometimes for knife handles. 

 Some antlers spread into broad palms which send 



out sharp snags around their outer edges, Others 

 divide fantastically into branches, some of which 

 project over the forehead, while others are reared 

 upward. From the number of branches the ani- 

 mal's age can be told. 



These gentle animals are cud-chewing creatures; 

 they live on leaves, herbs and lily pads in summer, 

 and on lichens, moss and bark in winter, the stags 

 eating only fungi in breeding time. Most deer feed 

 at night; the elk, however, roams about for its food 

 during the morning and afternoon. Each season 

 deer don a new coat of short, brittle 

 hair, the color of which varies with 

 the colors of nature of that time of 

 year. In most deer the senses of 

 hearing, sight and smell are very keen. 

 Hinds usually bear one fawn early 

 in the summer, although there are 

 occasionally two or three. The fawns 

 stay with the mother two or three 

 years, after which they wander off to 

 mate, although it is said they are not 

 full grown for fourteen 

 or fifteen years. In the 

 United States and Can- 

 ada the stately mule 

 deer of Rocky Moun- 

 tain regions, the Colum- 

 bia black-tail deer of 

 dense Pacific coast for- 

 ests and the white tail 

 deer are prominent. 



Reindeer 



