and the Maritime Provijiees. 49 



" North of the New England States but few deer are found. I believe 

 there are none in Quebec except along our frontier; in New Brunswick 

 but a small number are killed, and those in the regions near the Maine line, 

 from which State they appear to come. In Nova Scotia there are none 

 except those which were brought there and liberated by the Game Society 

 two or three years ago, and their progeny. This province is well adapted 

 to the deer, and probably if it is spared by poachers the forests will in a 

 few years be well stocked. New Hampshire contains quite a number, and 

 they are so abundant in Vermont that they are, in some localities, regarded 

 as a nuisance by the farmers. 



" The Virginia deer is so well known and its characteristics are so 

 familiar that an extended description of it would almost seem superfluous. 



" In summer the color of both sexes is a reddish-brown, except the 

 under portions of the neck, body and tail, which are white throughout the 

 year. Early in the autumn, after its coat has been shed, the reddish hue of 

 the pelage is replaced by a blue or lead color, and the animal is then said 

 to be "in the blue." Later the color becomes more gray, and this tinge 

 remains until the succeeding spring. The color of both sexes is the 

 same, and in winter the coat is much more dense than in the summer. 



" The form of this deer is one of the most symmetrical of all our 

 species, and the animal in its every movement is the personification of 

 grace. The male alone bears antlers, and the number of prongs on them 

 in a measure indicates the age of the animal : as, for example, a four- 

 pronged buck is supposed to be five years, and a five-pronged, six years 

 old. This, however, is not an infallible guide, for most bucks after attain- 

 ing the age of six years do not add any prongs to their antlers, but rather 

 increase their size and spread. 



"The antlers are knocked off or dropped in January, and begin to 

 grow again in early spring, and they attain their full size in July or August. 

 The horns are covered with a soft, hairy skin, called "the velvet," until they 

 are fully developed, when the covering peels or is rubbed off in scales and 

 strips until the antlers are entirely denuded. The antlers are dissimilar in 

 form, no two deer having them of like shape ; this fact, however, holds 

 good in all the Cervidae. 



" The male deer in the rutting season is a pugnacious beast, and the 



sporting-camp proprietors scattered over the State." One line alone, the 

 Bangor & Aroostook railroad, reports that it shipped from its various 

 stations in 1896, 2,245 deer, and the Maine Central in the same season 

 carried 950. If we add to these the numbers that were carried by other 

 lines of transportation and those which were consumed in the woods and 

 elsewhere in the State we can see that the figures given by the Commis- 

 sioners are not at all improbable. — E. A. S. 



