THE GLANDS. ' 267 



spondlng to that of the mule deer or the Columbia deer, with 

 either a white or a black band around it, I could not hesitate to 

 declare that it belonged to neither of those species, nor yet to any 

 of the others which I have described. 



It will be observed that there is a great similarity in the color, 

 and not a very wide difference in the extent of the tufts over the 

 metatarsal glands on the Virginia deer and the wapiti, while 

 they differ widely in tlieir location, and especially in that on the 

 latter the gland is entirely overgrown with the white hairs, while 

 on the former the gland is covered with a hornj^ scale and is en- 

 tirely destitute of hairs, except around its outer and nearly dor- 

 mant border upon which most of the white hairs grow. 



In the mule and the Columbia deer they closely resemble each 

 other, in shape and location, and differ principally in extent, and 

 appreciably in color ; and this is so marked on all the individuals 

 of each species, as to separate them widely, and leave no difficulty 

 in determining as to which any given specimen belonged. If 

 from the fawn of the mule deer and so no larger than from an 

 adult black-tailed deer, the entii-e absence of the horny crust, 

 or concentrated exudation from the gland, would remove all doubt 

 as to where it should be placed. 



I now see that I have omitted to mention in the proper place, 

 that this horny crust does not appear upon the fawn, but later, 

 after the secretions of the gland have been emitted and concen- 

 trated, and this increases in thickness and in density with the 

 age of the animal. 



Once I had three female black-tailed deer sent me from Ore- 

 gon, by Dr. Plummer. The long voyage told severely upon them, 

 and all arrived very poor, and one sick. In defiance of the most 

 careful attention, she continued ill for two months, when she 

 dropped two fawns. She lived a month longer and died. The 

 fawns were scarcely a third the natural size and were unable to 

 stand, but when fed Avith warm cows' milk they were soon able to 

 stagger about, but both died in a couple of days. On both these 

 premature fawns, as I suspect they were, the metatarsal glands 

 were entirely overgrown with soft, fine hairs. About a month 

 later both the other does dropped a fawn each, which were small 

 and emaciated, but I think mature, on which this gland was 

 naked, in the middle at least, but appeared to be more encroached 

 upon by fine, short hairs than on the adults. These fine hairs 

 soon disappeared from the spaces where there are no hairs on the 

 adults. These seemed to thrive moderately well for about four 



