126 THE DEER OF AMERICA. 



could see it now very distinctly, and was surprised that I had 

 been so long blind with my open eyes. I could now see that 

 some of the animals had already taken on almost the entire new 

 suits, while others had hardly commenced to cast off the old ones, 

 and yet the difference in color was no more than that observed 

 between individuals at any season of the year. 



On our Elk it will be observed that the change of coat in the 

 fall is exactly the reverse of that in the spring ; while the former 

 is so gradual as nearly to elude detection, it will be remembered 

 that the winter coat is cast off in great patches, felted together 

 so that large portions are carried dangling in tatters after the 

 hairs have been actually detached, and present altogether a very 

 extraordinary appearance. On this animal we see the two ex- 

 tremes of the process. 



The particulars of this process in the Moose and the Caribou 

 has not been carefidly studied by any one, so far as I can learn. 

 But few have had facilities for studying it, and these have taken 

 no interest in the matter. Naturalists have deemed it of so little 

 importance, that they have rarely even mentioned the two pe- 

 lages, although the marked difference in color of the two coats on 

 the Virginia deer, which has been much more studied than any 

 of the other species, has been frequently spoken of. 



The red and the blue coats have been constantly remarked 

 by hunters, because the deer are always poor when in the red, 

 and are only worth killing when in the blue. If I find occasional 

 mention made of the summer and winter coats of the moose and 

 the caribou, I lack the necessary facts to give a clear idea of the 

 minute differences which they exhibit. 



I have in my grounds all the species of which I treat, except 

 the moose and the caribou, and have been enabled to study at 

 leisure the living specimens, and so may speak with the utmost 

 confidence of them. 



In all, the change from the summer to the winter coat is grad- 

 ual, the new displacing the old by dislodging the hairs promiscu- 

 ously, till they become so thin that the new coat is seen through 

 the old. This is not simultaneous over the whole animal, for the 

 neck and shoulders may be clothed entirely with the new dress, 

 while the old still prevails on the thighs and rump ; or the win- 

 ter coat may have replaced the old on the back, while the belly 

 still shows only the summer pelage. In some, the new coat 

 attains a greater length than in others before the old disappears. 

 For instance, on the Mule Deer, the winter coat is scarcely three 



