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in length ; on April 15, 1929, a buck was observed with new antlers 

 three inches long ; and on April 14, 1930, two bucks were seen with new 

 antlers each about 2^ inches long. Barnum reports that in his 

 section by the first of May practically all of the bucks have new 

 antlers large enough to be seen without difficulty. He states that in 

 the Modoc region branching of the antlers is in evidence by May 20 and 

 that the antler is fully grown by the middle of July, although the velvet 

 is not normally shed until about the tenth day of September. 



My own extensive observations, together with those of George M. 

 Wright, made in Yosemite, indicate that on the average California mule 

 deer bucks are a trifle later in developing full antlers than are Rocky 

 Mountain mule deer in the Modoc region. The reason why the earliest 

 dates for new antlers come from Yosemite was possibly the fact that 

 they were especially watched for and were detected at an early stage 



Fig. 82. In Yosemite, many of the bucks had new antler.s grown out to the first 

 forking- by July 1. Yosemite, June 29, 1927. Mus. Vert. Zool. No. 5386. 



of development when less than an inch in length, while in the Modoc 

 region the new antlers were not noted until they had made considerable 

 growth. In the Modoc region branching of antlers was in evidence by 

 May 20. In Yosemite on May 24, 1928, Wright found that many of 

 the bucks had antlers grown out to about the first forking, while some 

 antlers had barely begun to fork on July 1 (see Fig. 82). On July 

 15, 1929, in Yosemite, I watched two large bucks that were feeding in 

 a meadow (see Fig 83) and found that their antlers were not over three- 

 fourths grown. A large four-point buck photographed at the same 

 place on August 1, 1929 (see Fig. 84), had antlers not yet fully 

 grown. 



On July 18, 1928, I watched a band of nine buck deer feeding har- 

 moniously on an area not more than an acre in extent in Yosemite. 



