300 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Type locality. Southeastern Virginia. 



Fannal position. The common deer of the northeastern United States 

 is an inhabitant of the transition zone and lowest (Canadian) division of 

 the boreal zone. The status of the deer of the upper austral zone is not 

 thoroughly understood. 



Habitat. Forests. 



Distribution in New York. Deer occur abundantly throughout the 

 extensive forests of northern New York. 



Principal records. DeKay : " This well known animal is still found in 

 almost every part of the state where there is sufficient forest to afford 

 them food and cover " ('42, p. 114). 



Merriam : " Deer are at present so abundant in most parts of the 

 Adirondacks that they outnumber all the other large mammals together. 

 . . . And there is every reason to believe that if proper game laws are 

 enforced their numbers will not materially decrease" ('84d, p. 9). 



Fisher: " The last deer killed near Sing Sing was a doe shot by 

 Mr Charles Acher on December 10, 1861 . . . In a letter from my 

 lamented friend George Ayles dated July 1, 1889, after describing 

 a fishing trip made a few days previously to Colabaugh pond a small 

 body of water five miles north of Sing Sing, he says, ' At the place 

 where we put up near the pond the farmer told me that he had 

 seen a fine deer feeding in the meadow near his house that morning' 

 ... I never heard that this deer was killed ..." ('96, p. 198). 

 Mearns : "The Middletown journal, issue of January 13, 1878, contains 

 a notice of the capture of a deer near Middletown in Orange county 

 New York. This record brings the species within the limits of the 

 Hudson highlands, and is the only authentic one that I know of, but I 

 am informed that deer are still occasionally found in the extreme north- 

 west corner of Orange county " ('98a, p. 345-46). 



Of the present distribution of deer on Long Island Mr Helme writes : 

 " This animal was formerly common throughout the island, but is now 

 restricted to an area containing about 25 square miles in the townships 

 of Islip and Brook Haven. Here they are still plentiful thanks to the 

 protection afforded them by the game preserves of the ' South Side gun 

 club ' and a few private estates." 



Cervus canadensis (Erxleben) Eastern wapiti 



T 777 [Cervus elap/ius] canadensis Erxleben, Syst. regn. anim. p. 305. 

 1842 Elaphus canadensis De Kay, Zoology of New York, Mammalia, 

 p. 118. 



