THE LIFE OF MAMMALS 
able peculiarity about this species is its gait, giving it in west- 
ern Canada the nickname ‘jumping deer.” 
“Tt is a most surprising thing,” wrote J. Harrison Mills, ‘to see adeer 
get up on its legs — at home, I mean, and when he would prefer to be alone. 
He lies with his four feet under him, and when he is ready 
to go, it is like Jack getting out of the box. The tremendous 
extensor muscles contract with all the power and facility rest and warmth 
have given them, and the plump body, like a well-inflated rubber ball, pro- 
pelled by a vigorous kick, flies lightly into the air. The simile is borne 
out as it seems about to descend; light as thistle-down it nears the earth, 
another giant impulse from an unseen power — crash — and again it de- 
scribes its light parabola; — crack — bump — thud — thud — thud — each 
time fainter than the last and your surprise is all that remains.” 73 
Gait. 
Roosevelt describes the gait as “‘a series of stiff-legged bounds, 
all four feet leaving and striking the ground together”; and 
it shows that the animal is accustomed to the hills, where it 
would quickly beat the long stride of the whitetail, so swift on 
level ground; nevertheless the buck-jumping of the mule deer 
will carry it at a great speed on flat ground, too. In their general 
habits mule deer do not greatly differ from the whitetail; and 
though sometimes in winter large numbers gather together, 
they are not so polygamous nor so gregarious as either the 
wapiti or the caribou. It has been found much more difficult 
to keep them and cause them to breed in captivity than in the 
case of the others. 
The Columbian blacktail is a distinct species, decidedly 
smaller, and with much more black on the tail, which dwells 
in the forested coast ranges of the Pacific coast 
from northern California to the borders of Alaska. 
It sticks to the woods, and penetrates where they are so dense 
that it is almost impossible to follow it; and is able and 
willing to climb to the alpine pastures on mountains so steep 
and rough as almost to defy human feet. 
Mexico has a species or variety of the whitetail, which is 
known southward nearly to the Isthmus; and south of that, 
332 
Blacktail. 
