120 THE DEER OF AMERICA. 



body is rather short and round. Its legs, too, are short and rather 

 stout, but by no means chimsy. The position in which the tail 

 is curved adds much to its appearance. This is only drooping 

 instead of being closely depressed when at ease, as is the case 

 with all the other deer. 



Oervus Virginianus varies very much in size, even in the 

 same latitude, though as a general rule they are larger at the 

 north than in their southern range. About forty years ago I 

 saw the carcass of one in the Chicago market, which I was cred- 

 ibly informed weighed two hundred pounds. Many years ago 

 I killed one near the entrance to Deer Park, in Lasalle County, 

 Illinois, which I mention elsewhere, which three stout men found 

 a heavy lift to put into the end of the wagon, though it was so 

 poor as to be unfit for the table. He must have weighed more 

 than two hundred pounds. As he was leaping through the brush 

 when I shot him, he looked like a large elk, though the excite- 

 ment of the moment no doubt magnified him in my eyes. In 

 the fall of 1876, I shot a buck in northeastern Wisconsin, which 

 was judged by several experienced huntei's to weigh nearly two 

 hundred and fifty pounds. Four of our Indians came from camp 

 but would not undertake to carry him in (not more than a third 

 of a mile), although we were very anxious to have it done. They 

 dressed him on the spot and made four loads of him. The chief 

 Indian remarked that one might hunt a lifetime and not see such 

 a deer as that, and I deem myself to have been exceedingly for- 

 tunate in having met two such deer and bagged them both with 

 dead shots. Even a deer cannot travel after the bone of the 

 neck is torn to pieces with a bullet, or the vertebra is severed at 

 the top of the shoulder. 



The largest Common Deer of which I have any authentic ac- 

 count was killed in Michigan, and weighecl before he was 

 dressed, two hundred and forty-six pounds. But such speci- 

 mens are rarely met with. It is much more common to meet 

 adults that will not exceed eighty pounds in weight, and the 

 average weight may be set down at not more than one hundred 

 pounds. The guesses of hunters often give much larger weights. 



These deer differ very much in form and proportions. Some 

 have long legs and long slim bodies, while others have short legs 

 and short bodies. This has been so observable among those in my 

 grounds, that I have sometimes been inclined to class them into 

 varieties, transmitting these peculiarities to their offspring. Since, 

 however, nearly 'all of those taken wild have disappeared, and 



