io Deer and Antelope of North America 



of a pitchfork, so that it is difficult to say 

 which prong should be considered the main 

 shaft, and each prong itself bifurcates again. 

 In the books this animal is called the mule-deer, 

 but throughout its haunts it is almost always 

 known simply as the blacktail. It is found in 

 rough, broken country from the Bad Lands of 

 the western Dakotas to the Pacific coast, and is 

 everywhere the characteristic deer of the Rocky 

 Mountains. The southern California form is 

 peculiar, especially in having a dark stripe on 

 the tail above. 



The true blacktail is found on the Pacific coast 

 from southern Alaska to northern California. Its 

 horns are like those of the Rocky Mountain black- 

 tail ; its tail is more like that of the whitetail, but 

 is not as large, and the white is much reduced, 

 the color above and on the sides, to the very tip, 

 being nearly black. 



The so-called antelope is not an antelope at all, 

 but a very extraordinary creature. It is the only 

 hollow-horned ruminant which annually sheds its 

 horns as do the deer. Its position in its class is 

 as unique as that of the giraffe. It is sometimes 

 called the prongbuck, but antelope is the name 

 nearly universally used for it throughout its range. 

 It extends from Canada to Mexico, through the 

 great plains and the open plateaus of the Rocky 

 Mountains ; it was formerly found from the lower 



