CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAME 283 



CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAME 



A publication devoted to the conservation of wild life and published quarterly by 

 the California Division of Fish and Game. 



The articles published in California Fish and Game are not copyrighted and 

 may be reproduced in other periodicals, provided due credit is given the California 

 Division of Fish and Game. Editors of newspapers and periodicals are invited to 

 make use of pertinent material. 



All material for publication should be sent to J. O. Snyder, Division of Fish 

 and Game, 450 McAllister Street, San Francisco, California. 



Vol. 20 JULY, 1934 No. 3 



DIXON'S MULE DEER STUDY 



The editor of California Fish and Game is gratified to be able to 

 present to the readers of this publication in this issue the first install- 

 ment of J. S. Dixon's "A Study of the Life History and Food Habits 

 of Mule Deer in California." This portion of the paper covers the life 

 history section completely and the remaining installment on the food 

 habits of mule deer will be concluded in the October number. 



The subject of mule deer conservation in California is such an 

 important one at the moment and Dixon's paper is such a valuable 

 contribution to it, that other articles on file for publication in our 

 quarterly have been held up in order that this paper might be published 

 at once. Although the author has trimmed his manuscript to the mini- 

 mum, it was impossible to publish the entire paper in this issue, as was 

 desired, and even at the exclusion of other main articles, publication 

 of the foot habits section must be deferred until the October issue. 



Joseph S. Dixon, author of this paper, needs no introduction to 

 most California sportsmen, for his abilities as a field naturalist and 

 wild life photographer are nationally recognized. Dixon, although 

 born in the East, moved to California in his childhood and spent his 

 youth at his family's home at Escondido, San Diego County, where 

 his studies of natural history commenced at an early age. Later he 

 attended the Throop Institute of Technology at Pasadena, and Stanford 

 University. A trip to Alaska in 1913-14 in which he was shipwrecked 

 and forced to spend the winter on the Arctic seacoast near Demarcation 

 Point followed and afforded him wide experience with Arctic collecting 

 and natural history. On his return from this trip, Dixon became affiili- 

 ated with the University of California Museum of Vertebrate Zoology 

 where for many years he held the position of Economic Mammalogist 

 until his association with the Wild Life Division of the National 

 Park Service in 1929. Besides collecting trips in southeastern Alaska, 

 Dixon had great opportunities for studying wild life in California 

 during his association with the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology and later 

 with the National Park Service. That the author made the best of 

 these opportunities as regards deer, always a favorite study of his, is 

 attested by the excellence of his present paper, which we consider is 



