Mule Deer 
animal approaching the moose in build, but such a conception is 
erroneous. The mule deer, like the jack-ass rabbit, owes its name 
not to its shape but to its enormous ears, which as we know are the 
most characeristic feature of the mule. 
Though but little exceeding the Virginia deer in height, the 
present species is a heavier, more coarsly built animal with shorter 
legs and with very different antlers. 
It inhabits usually the rough broken country but often ascends to 
the higher valleys and plateaus of the mountains. Besides its peculiar- 
ities of structure the mule deer has a distinctive gait. Instead of the 
continuous easy springs of the Virginia deer it proceeds by a jerky 
series of bounds, all four legs apparently touching the ground 
together, or to quote from Lewis and Clarke who first discovered the 
species: ‘‘It does not lope but jumps.” 
The range of the mule deer is quite extensive through the West, 
arid as will be seen below, the Southern representatives form distinct 
varieties. 
The mule deer was one of those many Western novelties which 
Audubon and his companions met with on their memorable journey 
up the Missouri River in 1843. He says of his first sight of it: ‘On 
winding along the banks, bordering a long and wide prairie, 
intermingled with willows and other small brushwood, we suddenly 
came in sight of four mule deer which, after standing a moment on 
the bank and looking at us, trotted leisurely away, without appear- 
ing to be much alarmed. After they had retired a few hundred yards, 
the two largest, apparently males, elevated themselves on their hind 
legs and pawed each other in the manner of the horse. They 
occasionally stopped for a moment, then trotted off again, appearing 
and disappearing from time to time, when becoming suddenly 
alarmed they bounded off at a swift pace until out of sight. They 
did not trot or run as irregularly as our Virginia deer, and they 
appeared at a distance darker in colour.” 
As time went on and settlers and hunters spread over the great 
West the mule deer became a familiar animal, distinguished by all 
from the Virginia deer by its curious gait, its equally forking antlers 
and its black tail; the latter giving rise over a large part of its range to 
the name ‘“‘black-tailed deer,” an appellation belonging more strictly 
to the animal of the Columbia River region of the Pacific Coast. As 
a game animal it is held by many to be unsurpassed. Mr. A. G. 
Wallihan says of this species: ‘‘ For me, at least, there is a charm 
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