200 



CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAME 



mule deer with tails having a black stripe extending up the dorsal 

 surface are most frequently found in areas where the ranges of mule 

 deer and black-tailed deer come together or overlap. Therefore, it is 

 my opinion that this character is a result of hybridization rather than 

 a dependable subspecific character. This point is well illustrated by 

 Fig. 60 which shows tails of three deer which I personally photographed 



in the flesh on October 16, 

 1928, and to the same scale. 

 The first tail (see Fig. 60a) 

 is that of a typical mule 

 deer killed at Crank 

 Spring, Modoc County. 

 The tail of the deer on the 

 right (see Fig. 60c) is that 

 of a Columbian black-tailed 

 deer from ]\Iineral, Tehama 

 County. The central tail 

 (see Fig. 60b) is that of a 

 hvbrid between a mule deer 

 and a black-tailed deer 

 killed on the south fork of 

 the Merced River in Mari- 

 posa County. In all three 

 instances T was able per- 

 sonally to examine the 

 entire skins of the animals 

 with skulls, antlers, legs, 

 and tails attached. Meta- 

 tarsal glands, skulls, and 

 antlers of the three speci- 

 mens showed conclusively 

 tliat the first (Fig. 60a) 

 was unquestionably a mule 

 deer and that the last (Fig. 

 ()0c) w^as an unquestioned 

 Coin m b i a n black-tailed 

 (leer. The central speci- 

 juen (Fig 60b) was chiefly 

 black-tail in all three char- 

 ;ictei"S (skull, metatarsal 

 Lihmd, and tail), and in my 

 opinion was one of many 

 hybrids betAveen mule deer 

 and Columbian black-tailed 

 deer. 



For many j^ears all the 

 deer in the Yosemite region 

 in the west central portion of the Sierra Nevada were regarded as typi- 

 cal mule deer. However, my investigations there have shown that there 

 are many individuals which, on the basis of tail, metatarsal gland, and 

 other characters are clearly and vmequivocally black-tailed deer. In 

 numerous instances I was able to photograph at close range tails of liv- 



FiG. 59. In the Rocky Mountain mule deer, 

 the tail is often constricted in the middle por- 

 tion as here shown, but with only the terminal 

 tip black. Specimen from four miles east of 

 Sierraville, California, September l.'i, 1925. 

 Mus. Vert. Zool. No. 4684. 



