NORTH AMERICA AND THE WEST INDIES 295 



a light gray, somewhat more rusty in summer, but in pattern 

 much the same as their larger relative. Old bucks reach a 

 maximum weight of about 100 pounds, does 75 pounds. Total 

 length of a large buck, 1,530 mm.; tail, 270; ear, 203. 



This small deer is still common on many of the wooded 

 mountains "of middle and southern Arizona, southern New 

 Mexico, western Texas, and in the Sierra Madre of Chihuahua 

 and Sonora, Mexico," which constitute its range, but "with 

 the growing occupation of their territory by cattle and sheep 

 and the increase in the number of hunters, these once abundant 

 deer are rapidly diminishing" (Nelson, 1916). In winter, if 

 snows became deep on the upper levels of their mountain 

 haunts, these little deer would move down into the valleys, 

 and it was not uncommon to see bands of 20 to 100 in the 

 White Mountains of Arizona in the nineties of the last century 

 (Nelson). Concerning their status in New Mexico, Bailey 

 (1931) writes that they occupy the mountain ranges "west of 

 the Rio Grande as far north as the Datils and possibly to the 

 Zuni Mountains ... In 1908 Goldman reported them as 

 formerly abundant in the Burro Mountains, but at that time 

 apparently all gone. In 1909 he 5 was told by residents that there 

 were a very few of them in the Zuni Mountains, but in previous 

 years" others had failed to find them. In the Mimbres Range, 

 Bailey reports that Goldman in 1909 found them in limited 

 numbers and that same year the Forest Service reported them 

 in the Datil, Gallinas, Magdalena, and San Mateo Mountains. 

 In the Animas Mountains they were found common by Bailey 

 in 1906, but he believes that their numbers are a result of the 

 protective natural features of their haunts, and that "a few 

 persistent hunters could easily exterminate them." This deer 

 probably reaches its eastern limit in the Chisos Mountains of 

 western Texas, where according to Bailey (1905) it ranges from 

 5,000 to 9,000 feet in the oak, juniper, and nut-pine cover. 

 Where undisturbed they may often be seen feeding by day. 



As to the future outlook for this deer, Bailey writes of it in 

 New Mexico: "In September, 1915, J. S. Ligon reported Sonora 

 deer still common in parts of the Mogollon Mountains, but 

 much less so than formerly, owing to unrestricted hunting in 

 season and out. On December 31, he wrote: 'The number of 

 deer killed in New Mexico during the season just closed far 

 outnumbers the increase for the year, I am quite sure.' These 



