266 



CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAME 



By July 18 I found that a pair of fawns born July 9 were able to 

 run and to follow their mother about, instead of sneakinp: through the 

 grass as had been their former custom. On this date I tried to approach 

 the mother and her two fawns but they were off in a flash. The doe 

 was very w'ild and ran out into a patch of tall velvet grass so that 

 the fawns were completely out of sight, and only the ears of their 

 mother showed above the grass. I found that when the fawns were 

 nine days old they were so large and so active that I could no longer 

 approach to within 20 feet of them. 



In the Giant Forest of Sequoia National Park I found that Cali- 

 fornia mule deer does often select some secluded nook at the buttressed 

 base of a giant Sequoia for their nursery. In San Diego County I 

 found that the fawns of the southern mule deer are usually born under 

 or near some brushy thicket or even in a rock pile. There is considerable 

 variation with locality as regards exact spots where fawns are born. 



The number of fawns in a lit- 

 ter is also subject to consider- 

 able variation with locality, sea- 

 son, and food supply. In 30 

 years' experience with mule deer 

 in all parts of California I have 

 found that a young doe usually 

 gives birth to a single fawn. 

 Older does frequently give birth 

 to twins. In Sequoia National 

 Park in 1933 I found that twin 

 fawns were born in about one 

 case out of four, and I believe 

 that this is about the average 

 ])roportion of twin fawns. 



The udder of an average nurs- 

 ing doe which we observed in 

 Yosemite Valley, July 10, 1928, 

 was found to be, when full (see 

 Pig. 101), five inches in diam- 

 eter and about four inches in 

 depth. As nearly as could be 

 judged through a comparison of 

 the udder of a doe with that of a 

 domestic milk goat, the capacity 

 of this doe's udder was about 

 two-thirds of a quart at each 

 nursing. When a doe has two 

 fawns it is the usual thing to 

 find the udder of the doe soft 

 and only partly full, due to repeated nursings. Even in one observed 

 case where we knew that the fawns were not nursing for nearly eight 

 hours, we took note of the fact that when the doe would return to her 

 fawns in the evening her udder was not greatly distended with milk. It 

 was only full enough to remove the wrinkles. The four teats on the 

 doe's udder were about five-sixteenths of an inch in diameter and from 

 one to one and a fourth inches in length. Older does were observed 

 to have larger mammae than the younger does. 



Fig. 101. The udder of a nursing Cali- 

 fornia mule deer doe, as here shown, is 

 about five inches in diameter and holds 

 when full about two-thirds of a quart of 

 milk. Note heavy infestation of wof>d 

 ticks on the inside of the doe's thiRh. 

 Yosemite, July 6, 1929. Wild Life Divi- 

 sion No. 171. 



