CHAPTER VI 



THE WHITETAIL DEER 



THE whitetail deer is now, as it always has been, the 

 most plentiful and most widely distributed of American 

 big game. It holds its own in the land better than any 

 other species, because it is by choice a dweller in the 

 thick forests and swamps, the places around which the 

 tide of civilization flows, leaving them as islets of refuge 

 for the wild creatures which formerly haunted all the 

 country. The range of the whitetail is from the Atlantic 

 to the Pacific, and from the Canadian to the Mexican 

 borders, and somewhat to the north and far to the south 

 of these limits. The animal shows a wide variability, 

 both individually and locally, within these confines; from 

 the hunter's standpoint it is not necessary to try to deter- 

 mine exactly the weight that attaches to these local varia- 

 tions. 



There is also a very considerable variation in habits. 

 As compared with the mule-deer, the whitetail is not 

 a lover of the mountains. As compared with the prong- 

 buck, it is not a lover of the treeless plains. Yet in the 

 Alleghanies and the Adirondacks, at certain seasons espe- 

 cially, and in some places at all seasons, it dwells high 

 among the densely wooded mountains, wandering over 

 their crests and sheer sides, and through the deep ravines; 



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