290 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



The status of this form is imperfectly known. It is a large, 

 rather pale animal, not very different apparently from mr- 

 ginianus. Its range is believed to be the northeastern part of 

 Louisiana, northeastward into the adjacent region. No 

 statistics of its numbers or notes on its status are at hand. 

 Probably, however, the 2,000 deer credited to Louisiana by 

 the 1939 Federal census of big game are largely of this race. 



PLAINS WHITE-TAILED DEER 



ODOCOILEUS VIRGINIANUS MACROURUS (Rafinesque) 



Corvus (i. e. Cervus) macrourus Rafinesque, Amer. Monthly Mag., vol. 1, p. 436, 1817 



(Plains of Kansas River, eastern Kansas) . 

 FIG.: Bailey, 1931, pi. 2, fig. D (antlered skull). 



This race of the mountains and plains of the western United 

 States is described by Bailey as large for a white-tailed deer, 

 color in winter pale gray, yellowish red in summer; tail long 

 and bushy, ears small. He describes a doe from Texas as 

 lacking the black tips on the ears, and in general brighter 

 colored than the race texanus. It is larger and paler than 

 typical virginianus. 



Originally well distributed in wooded and brush-grown 

 areas in valley bottoms and along streams from the Dakotas 

 west to the Rocky Mountains and south to eastern New 

 Mexico, it is naturally restricted in these regions to the local 

 habitats it favors, avoiding open country, but seeking the pro- 

 tection of thickets along the streams. In North Dakota, 

 Bailey (1926) writes that though much reduced in numbers 

 locally, this deer, because of its secretive habits has hung on 

 and is even in places common in spite of settlement. It may 

 even be farmed with profit, like domestic stock, so readily 

 does it respond to careful handling. Elsewhere its numbers 

 vary. Thus in Kansas, where it was originally described, it is 

 now extinct (Hibbard, 1933). In early days, wrote Gary 

 (1911), it was found generally over the Plains region of Colo- 

 rado, but it is at present uncommon in the State and largely 

 restricted to the foothills and eastern slopes of the front 

 ranges, where it occurs sparingly across the entire width of the 

 State. In recent years deer are reported as locally common in 

 the mountains of eastern New Mexico, although much hunted. 

 They especially frequent the "willow thickets along stream bot- 



