300 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 
Type locality. Southeastern-Virginia. — 
Faunal position. The common deer of the northeastern United States 
is an inhabitant of the transition zone and lowest (Canadian) division of 
the boreal zone. The status-of the_deer_of_ the upper-austral-zone-s-not- 
thoroughly understood. 
fTabitat. Forests. 
Distribution in New York. Weer occur abundantly throughout the 
extensive forests of northern New York. 
Principal records. DeKay: “This well known animal is still found in 
almost every part of the state where there is sufficient forest to afford 
them food and cover” (’42, p. 114). 
Merriam: “Deer are at present so abundant in most parts of the 
Adirondacks that they outnumber all the other large mammals together. 
. . . And there is every reason to believe that if proper game Jaws are 
enforced their numbers will not materially decrease” (’84d, p. 9). 
Fisher: ‘The last deer killed near Sing Sing was a doe shot by 
Mr Charles Acher on December 10, 1861 ... In a letter from my 
lamented friend George Ayles dated July 1, 1889, after describing 
a fishing trip made a few days previously to Colabaugh pond a small 
body of water five miles north of Sing Sing, he says, ‘At the place 
where we put up near the pond the farmer told me that he had 
seen a fine deer feeding in the meadow near his house that morning’ 
. I never heard that this deer was killed...” (’96, p. 198). 
Mearns: “ The Afddletown journal, issue of January 13, 1878, contains 
a notice of the capture of a deer near Middletown in Orange county 
New York. This record brings the species within the limits of the 
Hudson highlands, and is the only authentic one that I know of, but I 
am informed that deer are still occasionally found in the extreme north- 
west corner of Orange county ” (98a, p. 345-46). 
Of the present distribution of deer on Long Island Mr Helme writes : 
«‘ This animal was formerly common throughout the island, but is now 
restricted to an area containing about 25 square miles in the townships 
of Islip and Brook Haven. Here they are still plentiful thanks to the 
protection afforded them by the game preserves of the ‘South Side gun 
club’ and a few private estates.” 
Cervus canadensis (Erxteben) astern wapiti 
1774 [Cervus elaphus| canadensis Erxleben, Syst. regn. anim. p. 305. 
1842 Elaphus canadensis De Kay, Zoology of New York, Mammalia. 
p. 118. 
