THE MULE DEER 257 



years ago, Vancouver and adjacent islands are now 

 their habitat. Disease has decimated their ranks, 

 and left the survivors so weak that a severe winter 

 on the heels of an epidemic, wrought wholesale 

 destruction. The Indians also killed them in great 

 numbers, A prolonged close season has had bene- 

 ficial effects, and the latest Government report 

 prophesies a good supply of the game throughout 

 Vancouver at an early date. Wapiti's food consists 

 chiefly of roots and mosses until the severe weather 

 buries the supply. Then they take to the bark of 

 alder, willow, and maple trees. In moving from 

 place to place, they. march in well-disciplined order* 

 usually under the generalship of an old bull which 

 heads them. The cows and calves are surrounded 

 by the young bulls, which are ready to beat off any 

 intruder. 



The wapiti is the largest of the deer family, but 

 there are other species by no means lacking in 

 interest, and which hold a conspicuous place in 

 natural history. The mule deer, Odocoileus heuiionus, 

 ranks next in size. They are called the black-tail 

 by the Cree Indian, the description of which is 

 expressed in the vernacular as kas-ki-che-way-oos. 

 The jumper was another title applied to them by the 

 same tribe — the kwas-kwe-pai-hoos, and also the 

 a-pi-si-mo-soos, or "the little moose." The mule 

 deer is plentiful west of the Rocky Mountains. At 

 one time it was r.ot found far north, but of late years 

 s 



