39 



UNGULATES. 



white-tailed deer (C. leucurus) of the western side of the continent can scarcely 

 be regarded as anything more than a variety, while it is doubtful if the more 

 southern form known as the Mexican deer (C. mexicanus) is really entitled to 

 specific distinction. Considering all these forms as referable to a single species, the 

 Virginian deer will have a range extending right across the American continent 

 from east to west, and from south to north from Canada to Mexico. The main 

 distinctive characteristic of this species is to be found in the antlers (shown in profile 



VIRGINIAN DEER ( T \ nat. size). 



in the figure on p. 385, and from the front in the figure of the entire animal), in 

 which the anterior prong of the main fork shows a great development at the 

 expense of the hinder one. This abortion of the hinder prong is, however, com- 

 pensated by a corresponding growth of the sub-basal snag. These snags, like the 

 main prongs of the antler, are subject to extraordinary abnormal developments, 

 so that the variations which occur in the antlers of the Virginian deer are only 

 paralleled by those found in the reindeer. The tail is long. The summer pelage of 

 the Virginian deer is a bright bay, from which it derives its common local title of 

 red deer, but in winter the coat becomes of a greyer tinge. At all seasons of the 



