THE BLACK-TAIL DEER 113 



and mule-deer were black-tails. The black-tail has 

 large ears. Its tail is black above and white below. 



The range of the black-tail is limited. It is distinctly 

 a deer of the Pacific Coast, and is found only north of 

 San Francisco. Grinnell met it as far north as latitude 

 51°. Northward this species "dwindles" into the 

 Sitka deer, " in stature and antlers even smaller than 

 the Florida white-tail." It is abundant in some parts 

 of Alaska. 



The few writers who have mentioned this deer agree 

 that it is a woodland species, caring little for the open 

 country. Many of the forests in which it dwells are so 

 thick that it is difficult to stalk it without making a 

 noise, and it is often pursued with hounds and driven 

 to the water, or to run-ways, in the same way the Vir- 

 ofinia deer was in the Adirondacks before such methods 

 were forbidden by law. 



The methods of hunting this deer are the same as 

 those used by sportsmen to shoot the Virginia deer. 

 " Along the sea-coast," Grinnell says, " especially to 

 the northward, where they have been but little hunted, 

 they come down frequently to the salt water, for the 

 purpose of feeding upon a species of sea-weed, cast up 

 by the waves, and the tracks made in their passage up 

 and down the sides of the mountains are often worn a 

 foot or two deep, showing a great amount of travel 

 over them. The Indians of British Columbia kill great 

 numbers of these deer along the water's edge, stealing 

 up within shot in their light canoes, which they paddle 

 noiselessly along, close to the shore. Still-hunting in 

 the forest is practised with success in many localities. 

 Deer are very abundant on the islands and among the 



