78 HOOFED ANIMALS 



In Alaska, this species dwindles still lower into the Sitka 

 Deer, 1 which in stature, and antlers is even smaller than the 

 Florida white-tail. It is very abundant on Admiralty Island, 

 but until recently it was slaughtered in great numbers. 



The Virginia Deer, or White-Tailed Deer, 2 was the 

 first member of the Deer Family met by the early settlers of 

 America when they went hunting along the Atlantic coast. 

 It will also be the last of the large hoofed animals of North 

 America to become extinct. It is a forest animal, but in 

 many portions of the Great Plains region it freely risks its 

 life in the thin fringes of cottonwood timber, quaking-asp, 

 and willow brush that border the banks of small rivers and 

 large creeks. L^nlike the elk and mule deer, the White-Tail 

 is a great skulker. When hiding it crouches and carries its 

 head low, and by clinging persistently to the friendly cover 

 of brush or timber, saves itself under circumstances that 

 would be fatal to any high-headed, open-ground species. 



The White-Tailed Deer derives its name from its very 

 long, bushy, wedge-shaped tail, which is snowy-white under- 

 neath and also on the edges. When the animal is alarmed, 

 and running away, this white brush is held stiffly aloft, and 

 with every stride of the bearer, it sways from side to side, in 

 a startling and highly conspicuous manner. While the pe- 

 culiar mixed gray color of the pelage makes it difficult to see 

 this animal in brushy surroundings, the moment the creature 

 starts to run, its white flag waves as if purposely inviting 

 bullets, and in total defiance of all the laws of 'protective 

 coloration'' among animals. Indeed, so very flag-like is this 



1 O-do-coiV e-us sit-ken'sis. 2 Odocoileus vir-yin-i-an'us. 



