t 



ORNAMENTAL COAT. 157 



of these spots ave discernible from the shoulder back ; on others 

 they may be counted to the hips, and on others again the entire 

 twenty-one. 



On one specimen only, — an old doe which was raising a fawn, 

 and was quite thin, as is always the case under such circum- 

 stances, — I observed these spots represented by tufts of the 

 summer coat remaining, while all around the summer coat was 

 entirely replaced by the new winter dress. It would be curious 

 to know what was the condition of affairs beneath the cuticle 

 under these spots which had retarded the growth of the new coat, 

 and had served to retain the old, while all around was clianged. 

 Although I have but once observed this, when I could count all 

 the spots thus shown, as it continued but a day or two, it may 

 frequently have occurred without observation. I have on several 

 others seen a part of the spots shown by tufts of the summer 

 coat remaining. 



These rows of spots on the back of the adults occupy the same 

 positions as the rows on the back of the fawn, but are more reg- 

 ular in form and more detached. While the spots on the fawn 

 are more distinct, from the contrast of colors, they are irregular 

 in form and many of them confluent. I may make out the six- 

 teen spots, for instance, on the fawn, between the shoulder and 

 the hip, but I can as well make out twenty or more, for I must 

 count several confluent or double spots to reduce them to the 

 number to correspond with those on the adult. Again, on the 

 neck of the fawn these lines of spots extend quite up to the ears, 

 and are there even more brilliant than along the back, while 

 I have never detected one on the neck of the adult. Still I can- 

 not persuade myself but that there is some connection between 

 these spots on the fawns and those on the adults, and the sugges- 

 tion sometimes forces itself upon me that the Virginia Deer, at 

 least, and, possibly, all the others, were once spotted like the fal- 

 low deer, and that this ornamentation has nearly died out on the 

 adults, and may in time disappear on the fawns, as it has already 

 nearly disappeared on the young of the moose and the caribou, 

 and has even now much faded on the elk and the mule deer. 



I believe these spots on the adult Virginia Deer have been en- 

 tirely overlooked by naturalists till I mentioned them to Mr. 

 Darwin, when he noticed them in " Descent of Man." 



My opportunities for studying the ornamental coat of the Aca- 

 pulco Deer have been limited. I have in my collection two 

 fawns, produced out of season by a doe of this species in my 



