296 



The Living Animals of the World 



By permission of Professor Bv.mpu*] 



A MULE-DEER FAWX. 



York. 



in the wild state, being apparently only 

 known in China in the Imperial Park at 

 Pekin. This deer approaches in size the 

 red deer of Europe. The general colouring 

 is greyish brown, white about the eyes, 

 ears, rump, and under- parts ; the horns, 

 which lack the brow-tine, are very singular 

 in shape, and measure as much as 32 

 inches in length ; the tail is long, reaching 

 to the hocks ; the gait is " lolloping " and 

 mule-like. This is a marsh-loving species, 

 and at Woburn Abbey, where specimens 

 are kept, "they may be seen wading far 

 into the lakes and even swimming in 

 the deeper water." 



THE AMERICAN DEER. 



Excepting always the elk, wapiti, 

 and reindeer, which have been already 

 described, the deer of North and South 

 America stand quite apart from those 

 of the Old World, and are placed in a 

 genus of their own. Usually the tail is 

 long, and the brow-tine is always wanting. 

 The most familiar species is the common 

 AMERICAN DEER, of which the VIRGINIAN 

 or WHITE-TAILED DEER is the type. This 

 deer is found in varying forms in both continents, and was regularly hunted by the ancient 

 Mexicans with trained pumas. 



The well-known VIRGINIAN DEER, found in Eastern North America, and believed to range 

 as far south as Louisiana, stands a trifle over 3 feet in height, and weighs, clean, about 12 stone 

 7 Ibs. The coloration is chestnut in summer, bluish grey in winter. The antlers are of good 

 size, and measure as much as 27| inches in length. As a sporting animal the white-tailed 

 deer is not popular. Mr. Clive Phillipps-Wolley describes him as " an exasperating little beast," 

 possessing every quality which a deer ought not to, from the sportsman's point of view. "His 

 haunts are river-bottoms, in choking, blinding bush, and his habits are beastly. No one could 

 ever expect to stalk a white-tail ; if you want to get one, you must crawl." Mr. Selous, in 

 1897, bagged one of these deer somewhat curiously. "He was coming," he writes, "through 

 the scrubby, rather open bush straight, towards me in a series of great leaps, rising, 1 think, 

 quite four feet from the ground at every bound. I stood absolutely still, thinking to fire at 

 him just as he jumped the stream and passed me. However, he came so straight to me that, 

 had he held his course, he must' have jumped on to or over me. But when little more than 

 the width of the stream separated us when he was certainly not more than ten yards from me 

 he either saw or winded me, and, without a moment's halt, made a prodigious leap sideways. 

 I fired at him when he was in the air, and I believe quite six feet above the ground." 

 The deer, an old buck with a good head, was afterwards picked up dead. In different parts 

 of America, as far south as Peru and Bolivia, various local races of this deer are to be found. 



TRUE'S DEER is a small species, not unlike the Virginian deer, found from South Mexico 

 to Costa Eica. The antlers are "in the form of simple spikes directed backwards," and the 

 body-colouring is in summer light chestnut, in winter brownish grey. Little is at present 

 known of this species. 



The MULE-DEER, found in most parts of North America west of the Missouri, as far south 



The large ears, from which the American species takes its name, are noticeable 

 even in the young. 



