186 GAME. 



CHAPTEE XII. 



RED DEER, OR WHITE-TAILED DEER. 



(Cervus Lencurus.) 



OF all the animals that inhabit the plains, the red deer 

 is the most generally and widely known. 



Some of the others are exclusively plains animals, 

 while he seems to be indigenous to all climes and places 

 alike. He is found almost everywhere on the continent, 

 from the gloomy pine forests of Maine to the brush- 

 covered islands of the Pacific Coast ; from the icy plains of 

 British America to the ever sweltering glades of Florida. 



He is a splendid deer, yielding the palm in size and 

 majestic appearance to the black- tail, but in beauty and 

 grace to no living animal. His gait and speed are the per- 

 fection of motion. His magnificent bounds, in which 

 strength, speed, ease, and lightness are combined, his 

 gallant carnage, the flaunting defiance of his white flag 

 of a tail elevated high in air, all combine to render him, 

 to a student of nature, one of the most beautiful and 

 interesting of animals. 



These, together with his natural capacity for taking 

 care of himself, and thus calling into play all the best 

 points of the sportsman, make him an object of the 

 keenest interest and desire to every lover of the chase, 

 while the delicacy and exquisite flavour of his flesh 

 render him an object of at least equal interest to the 

 gourmand. 



The most widely disseminated, he is also, except the 



