COLOR. 39 



four inches long. On the legs and face the hair is short, quite 

 solid, and without the under fur. On the belly it is not so dense 

 as above, but finer and softer, and has the fur beneath. 



Color. 



The color of this animal is quite uniform on different individu- 

 als, though a difference in the depth of the shades may be ob- 

 served. On the female, the colored portions are not of so deep 

 a shade as on the male, and on the whole the marks ai'e not so 

 pronounced, although the white is quite as immaculate. 



At birth, the young have substantially the same markings as 

 the adult, though the dark shades deepen somewhat as they grow 

 older. Not the least appearance of those spots is observed on the 

 fawns, which so beautifully ornament the young of the smaller 

 deer. 



In a large majority of cases, downwai'd from a line drawn be- 

 tween the outer base of the horns, the face is a dark brown or 

 dull black. Two inches forward from this line the dark portion 

 is narrowest, and is scarcely two and one half inches wide, while 

 it is nearly four inches broad lower down. While this dark color 

 embraces the nostrils, it is separated from them by a white stripe 

 along the upper hp, which in front is seven lines broad, widening 

 posteriorly, till at the angle of the mouth it is more than an 

 inch broad. Here it unites with the white, which embraces the 

 chin and most of the lower jaw, and extends along the cheek to 

 the eye, the upper portion shaded with red. One inch below the 

 eye, and involving the posterior portion of the clieek, is an irreg- 

 ular dark brown patch, from two to three inches in diameter. 

 This is most conspicuous on the male. This mark is surrounded 

 by the tawny yellow of the back, except between it and the 

 lower part of the ear, where is a white patch two and one half 

 inches long and one and one half inches broad. There is a dark 

 circle around the eyes. Above the black on the face, to the ears, 

 is white. The ears are white on both sides, but much less pro- 

 nounced on the outside. The edges of the ears are black, con- 

 siderably less so on the back edge than on the toj) and front. 

 The eyelashes are of an intense black. So we may say the whole 

 head is white, except the face, the spots beneath the ears, a circle 

 around the eyes, the eyelashes, and the edges of the ears ; though 

 sometimes the russet yellow marks the back part of the cheeks. 

 The long, coarse, stiff, erect hairs of the mane are very black at 

 the outer ends ; lower down they are rufous brown shading to 

 white. 



