CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAME 233 



the shady incense cedar thickets. Here in the early morning they 

 may be found taking a sun bath, screened from intruders by the droop- 

 ing branches of the cedar trees, in the brilliant svinshine which shoots 

 through an opening like a spotlight. The more experienced bucks, 

 particularly those that come in contact with hunters, show a tendency 

 to bed down on or near the crest of rocky ridges where it would be 

 difficult for a man to approach without giving some warning through 

 the breaking of dead limbs or the dislodging of loose rocks. Such a 

 buck is illustrated by Fig. 67. I finally succeeded in ''snapping" this 

 wise old buck in his noonday bed, but at that only one photograph was 

 secured, for the second the sound of the releasing shutter startled him 

 he bounded away without stopping to take a second look. Does and 

 fawns show less care in choice of bedding places. However, when a 

 mountain lion is in the vicinity, I have found that all of the deer shov.^ 

 much greater care in selection of bedding places and tend to bed down 

 under such circumstances on or near the crest of the ridges, keeping in 

 the shade but out in the open rather than in thickets of brush, so that 

 the air currents which sweep up either side of such ridges during the 

 daytime can carry to them the scent or sound of any approaching 

 enemy. 



During the summer, mule deer tend to leave the forest and to graze 

 out in the open meadows during early morning and late evening. There 

 is also a considerable tendency, especially in areas where the deer are 

 not hunted, for the animals to bed down out in the open meadow where 

 they can have a wide vista and can detect the approach of any potential 

 enemy. 



There has been much conflicting evidence given regarding the daily 

 range of the mule deer. In certain instances I have found that a given 

 individual could be found day after day in a relatively small area, not 

 over one mile square in extent. This has been particularly true with 

 certain bucks that have been found to repair day after day to a certain 

 ridge or clump of brush where they have remained in hiding. During 

 midsummer or midwinter, the daily movement of a given deer has been 

 found to be much less than it is during the spring or fall when migra- 

 tory movements from the winter to tlie summer range are in order. 

 On the summer range, and also on the winter range, I have found that 

 certain individual deer, when they have not been alarmed by predatory 

 animals or hunted by man, have a monthly range of not over one town- 

 ship in extent, and in many cases the entire day is spent in an area 

 less than 1000 acres in extent. 



The seasonal range of mule deer is in some instances very slight, 

 perhaps not more than five miles in extent. However, in the majority 

 of cases in California mule deer there is a seasonal shifting of four or 

 live thousand feet in elevation and from 20 to 70 miles in distance. At 

 Eagle Lake, in Lassen County, on May 15, 1925, Rocky Mountain mule 

 deer were working westward around the southern end of the Lake en 

 route to their summer range. The difference in distance between the 

 summer and winter ranges in that particular locality varies from twenty 

 to thirty miles. In the central portion of the Sierra Nevada there is a 

 greater distance between the summer and winter ranges of the mule 

 deer, owing to the fact that the western slope of the Sierra Nevada in 

 that region has a very low gradient. 



