BIG GAME OF NORTH AMERICA 421 



country, nearly as high up as they could climb, at the beginning 

 of December, with snow a foot deep and the thermometer 10 

 below zero. There is no deer in the country, I fancy, whose 

 antlers are subject to such great variation as those of C. 

 macrotis. The pair figured on p, 419 is typical, although 

 distinctly above the average in size (25^-in. span) ; another 

 pair (obtained by Mr. H. A. James in Colorado) had 4i-in. 

 span, but the abnormal head figured on p. 420 is that of a 

 mule deer, and it has no fewer than 59 points in place 

 of the ordinary 10 points. This stag was killed in British 

 Columbia. I have also seen another pair, old and thick 

 and covered with well-marked pearls, with no tines at all 

 except at the top. The average weight of a male mule deer 

 is about 200 Ibs., though they sometimes run much larger, 

 individuals having been killed weighing as much as 250 and 

 300 Ibs. 



Some idea of the number of these deer in British Columbia 

 may be gathered from the fact that in one district I have had 

 a chance of killing seventeen separate stags in an hour's still 

 hunt, whilst one settler in the Similkameen country fed his 

 hogs on deer-meat through a whole winter. 



(6) THE WHITE-TAIL (C. virginianus) 



Of the White- tail or Virginian deer I have very little to say. 

 Every quality which a deer ought not to possess from a sporting 

 point of view this exasperating little beast possesses in the 

 most highly developed form. He lives very often in close 

 proximity to men, and seems to have caught some of their 

 cunning. His habitat is from the Atlantic to the Pacific, his 

 haunts are in river bottoms, in choking, blinding brush, and his 

 habits are beastly. No one need ever expect to stalk a white-tail. 

 If you want to get one, you must crawl about in places where 

 the big boughs swing back and lash you across the eyes, where 

 the rampikes catch in your clothes or rise up under your feet and 

 trip you more cleverly than a professional wrestler, where hidden 



