MULE DEER or BLACK-TAILED 



Odocoileus hemionus. 



The mule deer, so called from its enormous ears, ranges 

 throughout the Rocky Mountain regions and as far east as Mani- 

 toba and Texas. It is at once our largest and most stately repre- 

 sentative of its family, measuring between six and seven feet in 

 length, standing over three feet high, weighing two hundred pounds 

 or more, and carrying high in the air its proud head adorned with 

 many-branched antlers, the points of which are usually longer and 

 more pointed than the eastern variety, also having more in num- 

 ber, rarely less than eight. 



This member of the deer group is also known as the "black- 

 tailed" because the tail, which is naked at the base, then covered 

 for some inches with white hair, is tipped with black at the end, but 



27 



