1906.] Allen, Mammals from Western Mexico. 205 



externally buffy gray, with a narrow whitish or pale buff line 

 bordering the hoofs. 



From this medium phase the general coloration varies on the 

 one hand, through the suppression of the fulvous suffusion, to a pale 

 light gray above, darkening along the median line, and without 

 fulvous at the lower edge of the flanks, very little in the axillae, and 

 with pale gray instead of fulvous legs; on the other hand, through 

 the great increase of the fulvous suffusion, to a decided fulvous cast 

 above, with the lower edge of the flanks, axillae, chest, and legs strong 

 fulvous, and the upper surface of the tail bright chestnut to dark 

 chestnut. 



The summer pelage above is strongly fulvous throughout, darkest 

 along the vertebral line, especially anteriorly, passing into deep buff, 

 or ochraceous buff, on the flanks and legs. In the half-dozen summer 

 skins the fulvous tint varies in different specimens from clear yellowish 

 buff to deep ochraceous buff, the coloration of the summer pelage 

 thus being in strong contrast with the much darker and grayer tone 

 of average winter examples. 



The antlers in individuals of the same age vary widely, as usual 

 in deer, in form and size. Compared with those of northern forms of 

 the O. virginianus group, they are of course always small. But in 

 males of 4 years old and older, it is not always the oldest that have 

 the largest antlers. In males of 6 to 10 months old, with m 1 just fully 

 functional, the antlers are merely a bony process covered with skin 

 and hair; in males 18 to 20 months old, with m 1 -m 3 in place and the 

 milk premolars not yet shed, the antlers appear as spikes about 60 

 to 125 mm. long, sometimes slightly forked at the tip; in males about 

 30 to 34 months old p 1 -m 3 are fully developed, and the antlers may 

 be 130 to 1 80 mm. long, one or both usually with a single basal tine, 

 but sometimes forming merely a slender spike; males 4 to 5 years 

 old begin to show wear on m 1 and sometimes on other teeth, and carry 

 3-tined or 4-tined antlers, or one may be 3-tined and the other 4- 

 tined, in other words, the antler may be forked either two or three 

 times. 



In adults the antlers at base are directed backward, outward, and 

 more or less upward, according to the individual, and then curve 

 sharply inward at the second fork, or a little beyond the middle of the 

 main beam. The length of the main beam, measured along the out- 

 side convexity, varies in males of practically the same age from 240 

 to 340 mm., and in greatest breadth from outside to outside from 225 

 to 310 mm., resulting in antlers of widely different appearance. 



