NORTH AMERICA AND THE WEST INDIES 283 



Missouri, 700; West Virginia, 17,500; Tennessee, 1,700; 

 North Carolina, 51,000; South Carolina, 23,000; Georgia, 

 16,400; Alabama, 20,200; Arkansas, 8,400; and Mississippi, 

 4,600. A comparison of these figures with the statements 

 given above indicates that under recent legal protection the 

 numbers have probably increased very greatly over what 

 they were a few decades ago, so that a certain amount of hunt- 

 ing will become warranted. 



At the present time the white-tailed deer is the largest and 

 most valuable of our game animals in the eastern United States. 

 As an object of interest to the increasing numbers of persons 

 who delight in seeing wildlife, as an important item of food for 

 those living in rural or wilderness areas, and as a chief object 

 of pursuit by the many who enjoy hunting in the invigorating 

 autumnal season, this deer may be reckoned as one of our 

 most important species in the regions where it is found. The 

 readiness with which it adapts itself to the proximity of man 

 and the rapidity with which its ranks may build up if given 

 proper protection should make its continuance in reasonable 

 abundance a matter easily managed by any efficient game 

 department. 



NORTHERN VIRGINIA DEER 



ODOCOILETJS VIRGINIANUS BOREALIS Miller 



Odocoileus americanus borealis Miller, Bull. New York State Mus., vol. 8, p. 83, Nov. 



21, 1900 ("Bucksport, Hancock County, Maine"). 

 FIGS.: Stone and Cram, 1902, pi. opposite p. 42; Barbour and Allen, 1922, pi. 4, fig. 2 



(antlers). 



The northern Virginia deer is a slightly larger animal than 

 the more southern race, weighing when full grown up to 250 

 pounds or even more. In winter coat the pelage is slightly 

 longer and thicker, and the antlers of the males tend to be 

 wider, more spreading, and less bent in at the tips. 



The northern Virginia deer probably did not range farther 

 north in early times than the coastal regions of Maine and 

 adjacent parts of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, avoiding 

 the central parts of Maine, northern New Hampshire, and 

 northern Vermont and southern Canada. The northern and 

 central parts of New England and New Brunswick are regions 

 of heavy and lasting snowfall, in which the movements of deer 

 become much restricted in winter, while in times of crust forma- 



