138 BIG GAME OF NORTH AMERICA. 



Deer." By this name thej often mention it, until May 31, 1805, after they 

 had discovered the Columbia Black-tailed Deer, when Captain Clarke, on 

 enumei'ating the animals found on the Columbia River below the falls, calls it 

 the 3Iule Deer. By that name they ever after identify it, except in a single 

 instance. On their return, in 1806, near where they first met it they cap- 

 tured their last specimen, and called it Mule Deer. In the Rocky Mountains, 

 where the true Black-tailed Deer is not known, it is still called the Black- 

 tailed Deer. On the Pacific Coast, where it ranges with the Columbia Black- 

 tailed Deer, it is known by its true name. Mule Deer, by which designation it 

 is also recognized by naturalists. The original habitat of this Deer has not 

 been veiy much restricted since its first discovery, though it has deserted or 

 become scarce on the Missouri River and other hunted localities where the 

 white man has too much disturbed its seclusion. Its most flatural home is in 

 the mountains; but it is found on the great plains, hundreds of miles east of 

 them, where it most affects the broken and arboreous borders of the streams. 



West of the Rocky Mountains, this species of Deer is met with almost 

 everywhere. In the Coast Range, north of San Francisco, it is almost entirely 

 replaced by the Columbia River Black-tailed Deer, and south of that point 

 this variety entirely gives place to the California variety. In Oregon, Wash- 

 ington, and in British Columbia, the Mule Deer is met with, but not so abun- 

 dantly as in the mountains farther east. 



In the face of civilization, they maintain their ground better than the 

 Wapiti Deer. In flight, they do not run like the common Deer, but bound 

 along, all the feet leaving and striking the ground together. For a short 

 distance the flight is rapid, but soon seems to weary. Once, -when sitting on a 

 crag on the Rocky Mountains ten thousand feet above the sea, I watched one, 

 which had been started by a companion, as he bounded through the valley a 

 thousand feet below. In a run of half a mile, he showed evident fatigue. 

 That the labor of such a motion is greater than that of the long, graceful 

 leaps of the common Deer, must be manifest to all who observe them. 



Their limbs are larger and coarser than those of the common Deer, and 

 they are less agile and elastic in their motions, and are less graceful in form. 

 Their large, disproportioued ears are their most ugly feature, and give tone to 

 the whole figure. 



The summer coat is a pale, dull yellow. Toward fall, this is replaced 

 by a fine, short, black coat, which rapidly fades to gray. As the season 

 advances, the hairs of the winter coat grow larger, and so become more dense, 

 as well as of a lighter color. Usually, in the forehead is a dark, bent line 

 in the form of a horseshoe, with the toe downward. The brisket and belly 

 are black, growing lighter toward the umbilicus; thence, posteriorly, a still 

 lighter shade prevails, till, at the inguinal region, a dull white prevails. 

 Between the thighs it is quite white, widening toward the tail. This white 

 portion extends to one inch above the tail, where it is six inches broad. Lower 

 down, it is eight inches broad, and lower still, between the legs, it contracts 

 to four inches in breadth. Viewed posteriorly, this white patch is a conspicu- 

 ous object. Below the knees and elbows, the legs are of a uniform dark cin- 

 namon color. 



