THE VIRGINIAN FALLOW-DEER. 209 
them. It should, however, be mentioned as an addi- 
tional characteristic of some of the male Deer, although 
not common to the entire group nor always uniform 
even in the same species, that they are provided with 
canine teeth in the upper jaw; a peculiarity which has 
never been met with im any other genus of horned 
Ruminants. 
An illustration of the value of characters derived 
from general appearance may be found in the animal 
figured at the head of the present article. Although a 
female, and consequently without the distinguishing 
marks of the genus, a stranger to the species could not 
hesitate a moment in referring it to its proper group. 
And yet it has scarcely any one of the distinctions 
indicated above. It is in fact much more slightly made, 
more graceful in its form, and more lively in its colour- 
ing, than the Nyl-ghau Antelope which occupies a part 
of the same enclosure. It belongs, however, to a well 
known species of the genus Cervus, inhabiting the 
continent of America from Canada on the north to the 
banks of the Oronoco on the south. In size it is some- 
what superior to our own Fallow Deer, which it much 
resembles in its general form, The colour of the fawn 
is a deep tawny, sprinkled with scattered white spots, 
which are lost as the autumn advances, The hair then 
becomes grayish, and lengthens considerably during 
the winter, at which period the animal is said by the 
hunters to be in the gray. At the end of May or the 
beginning of June the winter coat is shed, and gives 
place to the short close reddish tawny hair, which lasts 
until August or September. Durmg the summer months 
it is said to be in the red. While the latter is again 
changing to the winter gray, the mixture of the two 
colours produces a bluish tinge, which the hunters 
express by saying that the deer is in the blue, at which 
p 
