CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAME 213 



unobstructed view that the deer thus had. By such advantage they 

 were able to see, or otherwise to detect, the approach of prowling 

 predators such as cougar, coyote, or bear, that might try to capture 

 them through stealth. 



Investigation at various hours of the night during July showed 

 that does and their fawns regularly spent dark nights out in the open 

 meadows, while seemingly less cautious bucks sometimes spent the 

 night under some large, lone yellow pine near the edge of the meadow. 



Some hunters claim that when the moon shines brightly mule deer 

 feed under cover of trees at night and bed down in the denser thickets 

 during the day. These men also claim that during the dark of the moon 

 the deer feed less at night and are more inclined to bed down at night 

 out in the open. The other group of hunters claims that the intensity 

 of the moonlight has little or nothing to do with the deers ' feeding habits 

 or with their choice of beds. I have made numerous personal observa- 

 tions on this very point and while no hard and fast rule can be laid 

 down, definite tendencies may be recognized. At 9.30 o'clock on the 

 evening of December 6, 1927, in the Yosemite region, the moon was 

 nearly full and shone so brilliantly from a cloudless sky that I was 

 able to see almost as well as I could at twilight. By aid of a powerful 

 electric flashlight, two of us moved cautiously through the woods finding 

 eleven deer, all except one bedded down in dense shadows under thickly 

 foliaged trees, chiefly incense cedars. One fawn was grazing just 

 outside the heavy shadow of a tree. We then searched the moonlit 

 meadows without finding a single deer in them. During the dark of the 

 moon I searched these same meadows and found them well populated 

 with grazing deer. At intervals during the summer and fall I made 

 frequent investigations and on dark, moonless nights found deer numer- 

 ous and bedded down out in this open meadow, but they bedded down 

 in the shadows under trees on bright moonlight nights ; so that my 

 numerous observations indicate that mule deer tend to bed down in 

 summer under trees when either the sunlight or moonlight is intense, but 

 when the light is dim, as during overcast days or during dark nights, 

 they tend to bed down in open meadows. Further experiments carried 

 on at various hours of the night revealed the fact that on bright moon- 

 light nights deer in deep shadows were relatively difficult to see. "While 

 thus concealed, they had an excellent chance to detect the approach of 

 any intruder through the moonlit zone surrounding them. On dark 

 nights visibility was generally poor and the deer then utilized the open 

 meadows where visibility of surrounding terrain was best. 



Many years' experience with the California mule deer has con- 

 vinced me that this race is much more of a brush inhabitant than either 

 the Rocky Mountain mule deer or the burro deer. Preference for an 

 open habitat is most marked in the burro deer which is a true denizen 

 of the desert. On December 29, 1930, at an unnamed spring, one mile 

 west of Chuckwalla Well in Riverside County I found and followed the 

 fresh track of a female burro deer. This deer had bedded down in soft 

 dry sand in an open wash under an ironwood tree. The bed measured 

 thirty inches in length and was twenty-four inches wide. Other beds 

 of other burro deer were found near the first, being entirely out in the 

 open sandy wash. The Rocky Mountain mule deer frequently beds 

 down behind a thin screen of mountain mahogany bushes. 



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