MAMMALS OF MINNESOTA. 281 



the chief factors. Still hunting is the only method available to 

 the white hunter. The Indian formerly succeeded in slaying 

 in a more wholesale manner. 



Cervus (Cariacus) virginianus BODD. 



COMMON OR VIRGINIA DEER. 



The most graceful and attractive in color of our Gervidce 

 reach only a medium size. The extreme weight may be 250 

 pounds but the average is much less. 



The beautiful reddish-gray which constitutes the prevailing 

 color varies to bright bay or yellowish. The winter coat is 

 lighter and more bluish than that of summer. The lower side 

 of the head to the throat, the belly and inside of thighs, and 

 the inside of the hind legs are white. A dark line marks the 

 median lower line of neck and brisket. The separate hairs are 

 banded with gray, brown, yellowish-gray and black succes- 

 sively, beginning at the base. The head is acute, the nose be- 

 ing naked, eyes very large, ears relatively small. The antlers 

 are spreading and strongly curved from base to tip with back- 

 wardly projecting tines, from one to six in number. The num- 

 ber of these tines is only an approximate index of the age, and 

 may vary in the opposite members of the same pair. They 

 reach a considerable size, weighing as much as six pounds. 

 The neck is much more slender in proportion than in the elk, 

 and the body is longer. The tail is longer than any of our 

 deer, and tapers uniformly. It measures from fifteen to six- 

 teen inches and is flattened rather than terete. The body above 

 described is furnished with long and marvelously active legs, 

 tipped with acute polished hoofs, and capable ofj feats not to be 

 believed till seen. 



This deer is more timid and sensitive than the larger species, 

 but when taken young submits to domestication readily. Al- 

 though moderately gregarious this species is not so polygamous 

 as the elk, and no single buck rules the harem. Fierce fights 

 often occur, however, and continual quarreling occurs during 

 the rut. The fawns are weaned at four or five months but fol- 

 low the mother, the males for one, the females for two years. 

 The mother tends and guards her young most solicitously. 

 During summer the feeding is done chiefly at night, and grassy, 



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