THE VIRGINIA DEEE. 



By "Walter M. Wolfe ("Shoshone"). 



mf HIS animal is so well known to students of natural 

 history, and there is so much literature extant con- 

 cerning it, that little remains to be said. It is 

 ^^ doubtful, indeed, if any facts can be stated that will 

 be new to science; and yet, as this volume will be read by 

 the youth -of this and succeeding generations, many of whom 

 may not previously have studied other works on the Cer- 

 vidce, it is deemed proper to give here a brief technical 

 "description of Virginianus, with such other facts as the 

 writer has accumulated in hunting and studying it. This 

 species can not be described more tersely or accurately than 

 in the words of the Hon. John Dean Caton, and I therefore 

 take the liberty of quoting from his valuable work, ' ' The 

 Antelope and Deer of America," the description of this 

 animal, which is as follows: 



About the size of the Columbia Deer, with longer legs and longer body; 

 head lean and slim; nose pointed and naked; eyes large and lustrous; ears 

 small and trim; antlers have a spreading posterior projection, and then curve 

 anteriorly, with posterior tines; neck long and slender; body long for its size; 

 tail long and lanceolate in form; legs straight and long. 



Lachrymal sinus covered with a fold of skin; tarsal gland present; meta- 

 tarsal gland small, and, below the middle of the leg, naked and surrounded by 

 white hairs; outside of these there is usually a band of dark-brown hairs, which 

 are surrounded by long reversed hairs of the color of the leg. 



Two annual pelages. Summer coat, from bay-red to buff -yellow; winter 

 coatj a leaden gray, greatly variant. Deciduous antlers, and confined to the 

 males. 



The Judge then gives the following. observations as to 

 its habitat, range, etc. : 



This Deer has the widest range of any member of the family, in any part 

 of the world. Its range is from the Atlantic to the Pacific, extending into 

 Canada and British Columbia on the north, and penetrating far into Mexico 

 on the south. It may be found to-day in every State and Territory of the 



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