The North American Cervidce. 147 



The Mule-Deer (Cariacus macrotis (Say) Gray). 



This species equals the common Virginia deer in height, but is 

 more stoutly built, has somewhat shorter legs, and is in all respects 

 a heavier, less graceful animal. The ears are the most striking 

 characteristic of this deer, and from them it has received the name 

 "mule," or the Spanish equivalent burro, deer. They are extremely 

 large, being nearly twice as long and wide as those of our com- 

 mon species, and when seen thrown forward, as the animal stands 

 gazing curiously at one, or flapping backward and forward as it runs 

 away, are sure to attract attention. The tail, from which it takes 

 its more common, but incorrectly applied, name, "black tail," is quite 

 unlike that of any other species of our Cervidce. It is short, round, 

 naked beneath, clothed on its upper surface with very short, white 

 hairs, and terminates in a thick brush of longer jet black ones. In 

 summer, the coat of the mule-deer is red, the hairs being short, 

 and so sparsely distributed that the black skin is easily seen through 

 them. There is a triangular patch of white upon the rump, cross- 

 ing it at, or a little above, the root of the tail. Early in the month 

 of September, the close, thick, winter dress begins to grow, and the 

 summer hairs fall out. The tips of the hairs of this winter pelage are 

 black ; and when it first starts, the animal for a short time appears 

 almost black. Later, as the hairs grow longer, the color becomes 

 steel-gray ; and toward the end of the winter, when they are longest, 

 and each one shows a greater proportion of white, the coat becomes 

 still paler in cast. 



The horns do not bend forward so much as do those of Cariacus 

 Virginiajius, and each beam of the pair is forked at least once, and 

 the division is so equal that it is difficult to decide whether the ante- 

 rior branch is the main beam and the posterior a tine, or the reverse. 

 This forking may sometimes occur twice or three times in the same 

 horn. 



The mule-deer is found throughout the greater part of the Mis- 

 souri River region, and thence westward on the plains, in the Rocky 

 Mountains, and in the Sierra Nevadas. It is an inhabitant of rough, 

 broken country, and on the plains is usually only to be found about 

 high buttes, in the bad lands, or where the country is diversified with 



