448 Roosevelt Wild Life Bulletin 



seem to be becoming gradually tamer until now they have reached 

 a stage of semi-domestication which asserts itself chiefly in the 

 winter season. Like the elk they are shy in summer, keeping out of 

 sight in the forested areas, and are only occasionally seen by tour- 

 ists. These two members of the deer family give the visitor in sum- 

 mer who would go in quest of them olT the noisy highways plenty of 

 exercise for the hunter's instincts and woodcraft. This condition of 

 affairs, highly desirable in several ways, is ideal for the practice of 

 trailing and wild life photography, and is being utilized as an educa- 

 tional feature for the bo_\s who spend their summers camping in 

 Yellowstone Park. J National Park should never be made a 

 rjoological garden. It should harbor only its (Avn natural fauna in 

 normal numbers and should be a >anctuary where the animals are 

 to be sought rather than a jjlace where they are on exhil)ition. 



WHITE-TAILED DEER 



Odoeoileus virginianus niaerourus ( lvatines(|ue ) 



The graceful little white-tailed deer inhabit the c<iuntr_\- about 

 ]\Iammoth Hot »S])rings and elsewhere at the north end of the b'ark, 

 in the valleys of the Gardiner and Yellowstone Rivers. They are 

 the wood nym]jhs of the Yellowstone, gentle but timid (fig. 87 j, and 

 show no such familiarit}- with man as their larger cousins the mule 

 deer. Their triloe is not numerous, for apparently less than fifty live 

 inside the Park. I saw onl}' some fifteen individuals during two 

 months' observation in the late autumn of 192 1 at Mammoth, where 

 one might find small family groups of these exc[uisite creatures about 

 the lawns at dusk every evening. They were easily approached and 

 gentle, but more nervous than mule deer and did not come to the 

 kitchen doors to be fed as did man)- of the latter. In the daytime 

 it was rare to see the females on the lawns. They remained hidden 

 in grassy hillside nooks, while an occasional white-tail Ijuck might 

 lie found associated with the mule deer about tb.e human habitations 

 (figs. 88, 89). 



The winter in the Park is evidently loo severe for the white-tail 

 deer. \\'hen the landscape about ]\Iammoth became white with snow, 

 and winter realh- settled down to stay, they were no more to be seen, 

 though ordinaril}- a few are observed throughout the winter. Evi- 

 dently thev moved down the valley of the lower Yellowstone where 

 the climate is warmer, but unfortunatelv jjrotection from hunters is 

 much less or entirely wanting there, doubtless it is the killing of 

 the deer outride the Park that keeps their numbers at so low an 



