BISON— WHITE-TAILED DEER— MULE-DEER 331 



The largest mammal is the American bison (Bos bison) universally 

 known in America by the erroneous name of buffalo. It is less 

 well proportioned than its European relative, the hind-quarters being very weak in 

 comparison with the magnificent shoulders and the massive head. Two varieties 

 are recognised by American naturalists, the typical prairie race and the wood 

 buffalo (B. bison athabascce) of the north-west. Before the days of railways bison 

 existed in vast herds over quite a third of North America, but, with the exception 

 of some herds of the woodland race in the north-west, and those preserved in the 

 Yellowstone Park, the species has been practically exterminated in the wild state. 

 White-Tailed With the exception of the little pudu of South America, the 



Deer. whole of the true American deer (that is to say those other than the 



elk, wapiti, and reindeer, which are circumpolar types) may be included in the 

 single genus Mazama, of which there are no Old World representatives. The 

 members of this group are distinguished by the uniform colouring of the adults, 

 by the narrow bare muzzle, the presence of a gland on the inside of the hock, 

 but above all by the nature of their antlers. In those forms in which they are 

 branched, these latter differ from those of the typical deer of the Old World by 

 branching in a characteristic forked manner. 



The most characteristic of all American deer is perhaps the white-tail 

 (Mazama [Odocoileus] americana), of which there are many races, the Virginian 

 race being the typical form. The antlers are characterised by the great develop- 

 ment of the front branch of the main fork, which carries several upright tines, and 

 by the presence of a conspicuous sub-basal snag. More characteristic still is the 

 long, bushy tail, coloured like the back above, but wholly white beneath. At all 

 seasons the Virginian white-tail (which is a comparatively large animal) has a 

 white throat, a white band above the muzzle, and white rings round the eyes, the 

 inner sides of the legs and under-parts, like the lower side of the tail, and buttocks, 

 being also white. There is a small circular white-rimmed gland on the lower part 

 of the outer side of the hind-leg;. The general colour in summer is reddish fawn on 

 the upper-parts, but in winter bluish grey. 



The various local races of this widely spread species differ not only in details of 

 colour and marking, but also in the form of the antlers and in bodily size from 

 this typical form. The largest races, like the Virginian and the western M. 

 americana macrura, inhabit the north, but towards the south the forms become 

 smaller and smaller, and have simpler and simpler antlers, until in the neighbour- 

 hood of the Gulf of Mexico and in Central America they become so small that it is 

 difficult to believe they belong to the same species. Nevertheless the transition 

 from the larger to the smaller is so gradual that, although an actual gradation 

 does not take place, it is evident that they are all modifications of one vari- 

 able type. This is true even of the little Acapulco white-tail (M. americana 

 tolteca) of Yucatan, in which even the white-ringed gland on the outer side of 

 the hind-leg is absent. 



An allied but very distinct type is represented by the mule-deer 



(31. [0.] hemionus), which takes its popular title from the enormous 



size of its ears. This species, of which there are likewise several local races, is 



further distinguished by the form of its antlers, in which the sub-basal snag is 



