OfJfi 



VERTEBRATA. 



THE COMMON AMERICAN DEER. 



The Common American Deer, C. Virginianus, called by European writers by the various 

 names of Roebuck, Jumping Deer, Long-tailed Deer, &c, is about the size of the European fal- 

 low-deer, and resembles it in temper and character; the color is brown in summer and gray- 

 browu in winter; the fawns are spotted with white; the tail is white beneath, and carried erect 

 wh< u running; the length of the body is five feet to five and a half; the height three to three 



FEMALE AMERICAN DEEB, IN" THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS, LONDON. 



and a half: the weight one hundred and twenty to two hundred pounds. In its form it is light" 1 

 elegant, and in its movements exceedingly graceful. Its flesh is delicious, and its venison is 

 of the luxuries of the table in winter throughout a great part of the United States. It is 

 very timid, and flies with almost incredible speed from the hunter, bounding through the thick, 

 maze-, of tie- fori sta almost a- swiftly as over the open plains. There arc few objects in nature' 



