234 CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAME 



In connection Avith the suppression of the foot-and-mouth disease 

 anionp: deer in the Stanislaus National Forest, in 1924, it was found that 

 the summer range of mule deer was, in certain instances, as much as 

 50 miles distant from the winter range. 



On July 28, 1929, west of Saddlebag Lake along the crest of the 

 Sierra Nevada, I found freshly made tracks of deer. The nearest 

 known wintering ground of mule deer to the west was 50 miles distant. 



During the rutting season, mule deer bucks have been known to 

 travel as much as ten miles overnight. One of the best illustrations of 

 the range of mule deer that we have been able to secure was reported 

 by H. C. Bryant {Jounml of Mammalogij, Aug., 1924, p. 201) : "In 

 1921, Ranger Henry Skelton and his brother, stationed at Cascada, 

 about eight miles down the canyon from Yosemite, took an interest in 

 a tame doe with two fawns. Incidentally, one of the fawns became so 

 injured that it was mercifully killed. The doe became so tame that it 

 could be petted. In sending to a mail-order house for materials, a small 

 bell was noted in the catalogue and w'as ordered, that it might be placed 

 around the neck of the tame doe. Having been thus marked with a 

 leather collar and a bell, the doe was continuously identified in the 

 vicinity during the rest of the summer. In the following summer 

 (1922), this same doe with the bell was reported along the south rim 

 of Yosemite Valley on the Pohono trail. During the past summer 

 (1923), the same animal was reported many times from Little Yosemite 

 Valley, a minimum distance of seventeen miles from the place where 

 it M'as first belled, and in the summer of 1924 along the Half Dome trail 

 about four miles north of its 1923 habitat. She has wintered regularly 

 at Cascada." Observations that have been made in years following 

 1924 showed that this individual doe had about the same annual range 

 over a period of years, and that her daily range, both on the winter and 

 summer ranges, covered a relatively small area, not more than one 

 square mile in extent. 



The Rocky Mountain mule deer and the burro deer are more par- 

 tial to open woods and broken rock country than are either the black- 

 tailed or California mule deer, which latter are regular brush inhabi- 

 tants. However, on the west slope of the Sierra Nevada at the lower 

 altitudes which form the winter range of the California mule deer, I 

 have found that at this season they are very partial to the protection 

 afforded by scattered clumps of brush, especially to scrub oak. or buck 

 brush. 



The California mule deer is a characteristic inhabitant of the 

 chaparral belt, and in this area, while many of the deer do make a 

 regular spring migration to the summer range in the higher mountains, 

 there are a certain number of deer to be found in the brush belt through- 

 out the year. 



In the vicinity of Giant Forest, Fresno County, I found that mule 

 deer make a decided and often extensive seasonal migration. In hunt- 

 ing mountain lions with State Lion Hunter J. Bruce in that region in 

 midwinter, we found that the majoritv of the deer at that season of 

 the year were to be found in the brush belt just below the lower edge of 

 the yellow pine belt. The extreme elevations of the winter range varied 

 from 1500 to 4800 feet. However, the bulk of the deer were to be found 

 between the 3000-3500-foot contour lines. In this region on August 



