CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAME 



321 



AVAILABILITY OF VARIOUS FOODS 



A certain species of plant may be palatable and may occur abun- 

 dantly in the lower foothills of the Sierra Nevada and still have but 

 slight importance as food because it is outside of the mule deer's habitat. 

 Conversely, some preferred plants such at Ceanothus may occur abun- 

 dantly at elevations of 6000 feet in the Sierra Nevada and yet are 

 inaccessible in winter because of being covered with from 3 to 6 feet of 

 snow. However, the same winter storms that snow under the Ceanothus 

 thickets break off and bring down on top of the snow tons of green 

 conifer branches, whole clumps of mistletoe and many dead branches 

 that are covered with staghorn lichen or unsea moss. All of these 

 "windfalls" are eagerly sought for and eaten (see Fig. 117). I find 

 that the melting of the snow in the early spring uncovers many fallen 



Fig. lis. Greeji growing milkweed leaves were never noted eaten by deer, but 

 in the fall the dry frosted leaves of this plant were eagerly sought and eaten 

 by bucks, does and fawns. Yosemite, September 17, 1927. Mus. Vert. 

 Zool. No. 5492. 



acorns and dead leaves which were unavailable as food during the 

 winter. These hidden items are important to mule deer and are eagerly 

 sought for in early spring. Fungi are eagerly eaten in late summer 

 when they are at hand. 



PALATABILITY OF VARIOUS FOODS 



In considering the palatability of various grasses, plants, shrubs 

 and trees as food of deer we must take into account all seasons of the 

 year, because a plant which may be scarcely touched under one set of 

 conditions will often be extensively utilized at some other time. For 

 instance, I have watched California mule deer for at least 100 hours 

 feeding amid patches of growing purple milkweed (Asclepias cordi- 

 folia) without seeing them even taste it. Close inspection of the green 

 plants showed that none was browsed. I was about to conclude that 



