150 The North American Cervidce. 



deer, and to the north with the caribou and the elk. Its northern 

 limits do not appear to be very definitely known. I have myself 

 met with it as far north on the Pacific coast as latitude 51 , and 

 it may be assumed that it is found many degrees farther to the 

 northward. 



The young of this species are usually born in May, and are 

 spotted, and this ornamentation is decidedly more vivid than in the 

 young of the mule-deer and the elk. The spots are more numerous, 

 more regularly arranged in lines, and more sharply defined, than in 

 those species, and thus approach the markings on the young of the 

 common deer. 



The black-tail deer is an inhabitant of the dense coniferous 

 forests of the Pacific coast, and appears to delight especially in such 

 tangled solitudes as their dark and damp recesses afford. They are 

 seldom found far from the timber, or from some dense cover into 

 which they can retreat if alarmed. Along the sea-coast, especially 

 to the northward, where they have been but little hunted, they come 

 down frequently to the salt water, for the purpose of feeding upon a 

 species of sea-weed cast up by the waves, and the trails made in 

 their passage up and down the sides of the mountains are often worn 

 a foot or two deep, showing a great amount of travel over them. The 

 Indians of British Columbia kill great numbers of these deer along 

 the water's edge, stealing up within shot in their light canoes, which 

 they paddle noiselessly along, close to the shore. Still hunting in 

 the forest is practiced with success in many localities. Deer are very 

 abundant on the islands and among the mountains of this coast, 

 and as they are not often disturbed they are very unsuspicious, and 

 will frequently permit the hunter to approach very close without 

 taking the alarm. There are, however, great areas of territory 

 where, owing to the thick and tangled character of the undergrowth, 

 stalking is out of the question, because of the impossibility of noise- 

 less progress through the thickets. Hounds are therefore often used 

 to drive the deer to certain well-known runways, or into lakes, rivers, 

 or arms of the sea, where the hunter has no difficulty in paddling or 

 rowing up to the swimming quarry and dispatching it. Like the 

 common deer, the black-tail is a rapid swimmer, and I have seen the 

 strength and skill of two practiced paddlers severely taxed to bring 

 a light canoe up to a deer swimming across a lake. 



