186 BIG GAME OF NORTH AMERICA. 



United States. It inhabits alike the dense woodlands and open prairies, the 

 high mountains and the lowest valleys, the arid plains and the marshy swamps. 



As we might well expect, from its wide distribution and varied range, we 

 find several more or less distinctly marked varieties of this species, all of 

 which have well-defined indicia which determine their specific identity. 



From its wide distribution and great numbers, it is quite familiar to nearly 

 all Americans, and is almost the only one known to most of them. 



In form and action it is the most graceful of all, and has been more fre- 

 quently domesticated than any other; yet rarely have persistent attempts been 

 made to reduce it to complete and permanent domestication. When young it 

 is a pretty pet around the premises; but in a few years it becomes dangerous, 

 and so is generally got rid of. In its markings it is less^ stable than either of 

 the other species. In shades of color there are wide differences among indi- 

 viduals in the same neighborhood, while fugitive markings are frequently 

 observed which are present only for a single year, and some individuals have 

 permanent markings which are wanting in others. In summer pelage a large 

 majority are of a bay-red, and with a great diversity in shade, while others 

 of the same herd will be of a buff -yellow; between these extremes almost every 

 shade may be seen. 



In a given neighborhood there is a great difference in the size of indi- 

 viduals, but there is a permanent difference in size in different localities; the 

 smallest being found in the southern part of the range bordering the Gulf of 

 Mexico and in Northern Mexico, the westerly ones being the smallest of all, 

 where they have been classed by naturalists as a separate species, under the 

 name of Cervu* JfcMcanus. In their northern range and in the mountainous 

 regions of the West, the white portion covers a larger surface of the body than 

 in other regions, where they have been ranked by many naturalists as a sepa- 

 rate species under the name of Cernts lucurus. By hunters these have been 

 called the Long-tailed or White-tailed Deer, the latter name having been used 

 by Lewis and Clarke, while in truth their tails are no longer than those found 

 in other regions. From the larger extent of white frequently, if not generally, 

 found on them, we might possibly be justified in assigning them the distinction 

 of a variety, though this peculiarity is by no means universal, for many indi- 

 viduals can not be distinguished from those found in Illinois or Wisconsin. I 

 have one specimen, from Northwestern Minnesota, with all the legs entirely 

 white to several inches above the hocks and knees, with occasionally a tawny 

 hair interspersed among the white. The white on the belly, too, extends up 

 the sides farther than is usually observed. This is exceptional, though not 

 very uncommon in the Northwest, but I have never seen it in their middle or 

 southern range. I have never found any black on the tails or faces of the 

 northern variety, while it is common on more southern and eastern varieties. 

 This accords with a law which, however, is not universal by which we are 

 led to expect more while on the same species of quadrupeds or birds which are 

 permanently located in the North than on those located in the South. 



The antlers of the Virginia Deer are peculiar, and easily recognized. The 

 curvature described is more abrupt than on any other species, while the pos- 

 terior projection of the tines from the beam is peculiar to this Deer, except that 



