96 



THE DEER OF AMERICA. 



ers call the horse-shoe. A black or dark brown spot also is seen 

 below each side of the mouth, growing lighter in color as it passes 

 around back of the chin, sometimes uniting there and sometimes 

 not. The brisket, and the belly back of the fore legs are black, 

 growing lighter towards the umbilicus ; thence backward a 

 lighter shade prevails, till at the inguinal region it is a dull 

 white ; passing up between the hind legs it becomes quite white, 

 widening out towards the tail so as to involve all the buttock, 

 where the white portion is from six to eight inches broad, pre- 

 senting a very conspicuous appearance when the animal is viewed 

 from behind. Unlike the white patch on the elk, the antelope, 

 and the big horn, this white portion does not extend up the 

 rump above the tail more than about an inch, but spreads out 

 from the root of the tail each way to the breadth of three inches 

 and then descends, widening and then contracting to the inside 

 of the hams ; so that at the top the white is six inches broad, 

 lower down it is eight inches, and then contracts to four inches 

 between the legs. Below the knees and elbows the legs are of 

 a dark cinnamon color. 



He subsists upon the same sort of vegetation as that on which 

 the other deer of the temperate regions feed. He seems unable 

 to masticate freely hard substances, such as dried corn or hard 

 shelled nuts, which the others have no difficulty in grinding to 

 pieces. 



f/i»Ni-c:-'.it. 



Black-tailed Deer. 



