ARTIODACTYLA 



315 



proposed to set aside $100,000 from the game fund for that purpose, 

 but the bill failed to pass the legislature. 31 In Massachusetts the 

 amounts paid to farmers for damage to their crops through the dep- 

 redations of deer have varied from $237.30 in 1903 to $19,977.29 in 

 1913, the amount for 1926 being $15,702.77. The number of deer shot 

 in accordance with law while damaging crops has varied from 16 in 



* Antlerless deer. 



** Special deer licenses only. 



1907 to 327 in 1910, but was only 90 in I926. 32 The amount paid for 

 such damage in New Hampshire in 1918 was $1,016, and in 1927 

 it was $i, 299.25. 33 In Vermont it was $2,167.55 f r tne season of 

 1918-1919 and $973.14 for I9I9-I92O. 34 In 1923-1924 it was 

 $2,i3i.96. 35 Few of the states have laws providing for the payment 

 for such damages. 



Though deer eat grass freely at times, especially in the spring, at 

 other times it constitutes only a very small part of their food, unless 

 other food is scarce. Bailey found no grass in stomachs of western 

 white-tailed deer (Odocoilens virginianus macronrus) killed during 

 the hunting season, but says their food is chiefly "leaves, buds and 

 seeds of a great variety of trees." They are fond of acorns and pods 

 of leguminous plants, and prefer weeds to grass, hence a few of them 



81 The Pennsylvania deer problem, Pennsylvania Board of Game Comm. Bull. 

 12, p. 5, 1929. 



82 Ann. Kept. Massachusetts Div. Fisheries and Game for 1921, p. 54; for 1926, 



No. 12, p. 5, 1929. 



. K 

 p. 27. 



83 Kept. New Hampshire Fish and Game Comm. for 1918, p. 4; for 1928, p. 18. 



84 25th Biennial Kept. Vermont Dept. Fish and Game, p. 21, 1920. 



35 27th Biennial Rept., as cited in California Fish and Game, xi, p. 91, 1925. 



