The Virginia Deer 



George H. Russell 



Winthrop, N. Y. 



Deer are widely distributed over the face of the earth, and include 

 a great number of species. They are to be found in most parts of 

 the world, except in desert regions, where they seem unable to pick 

 up a living as do some of their cousins, the antelopes. 



So far as is known there are no deer in Africa or Australia, their 

 place in Africa being taken by the antelopes. In Central Asia 

 there are several large and handsome forms resembling the red 

 deer in shape and in the character of horns, and others that are 

 more like the American elk or wapiti. In North America several 

 species are found and in South America, there are often well 

 marked but comparatively small and insignificant forms of deer. 



Those in Eastern North America are separated into several 

 geographical varieties and represented westward to the Pacific by 

 other closely related races. 



The Virginia deer in one or other of its varieties was originally 

 spread abundantly over our country, but the encroachments of 

 agriculture upon the wilderness, the inroads of the lumberman, the 

 fire which ever travels in his wake and the spread of towns and 

 cities have driven the deer from a large portion of their former 

 range and sadly decreased their nimibers elsewhere. 



At the present time there are comparatively few deer left in this 

 country. Red and fallow deer are, however, still to be found in 

 the Highlands of Scotland, and in a few districts of England and 

 Ireland, but if they were not carefully protected they would soon 

 die out. 



The Virginia deer are at present found chiefly in the Eastern 

 parts of the United States, extending from Canada into Florida, 

 and varying in color at difi!erent places and seasons. In New 

 England, within the last few years, these beautiful creatures have 

 returned to dwell again in the haunts of their ancestors, wherever 

 the destruction worked by civilization has not been too severe. 



They are present in spots from which they were supposed to have 

 been driven forever. Not the pampered stock bred in game pre- 

 serves, but the sturdy descendants of the native wild deer, that the 

 red men hunted thru rough forests, when the whole country 

 belonged to them alone. It would certainly be hard to find a 



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