94 THE DEER OF AMERICA. 
of long black hairs; naked on the under side. Metatarsal gland very 
large and long. ‘Tarsal gland, present. Hoofs black. No white hairs 
about the feet or the metatarsal gland. A white section opposite and 
below the tail. 
There are two distinct varieties of this deer in the United 
States and probably a third in Mexico. I shall first treat of the 
most abundant, and the most widely distributed variety. 
CEervus MAcRoTIS, Var. Montanus. 
This deer was first discovered by Lewis and Clark, on the 18th 
of September, 1804, in latitude 42°, on the Missouri River, who 
then called it Black-tailed Deer. By this name they often men- 
tion it, until the 31st of May, 1805, after they had discovered 
the Columbia black-tailed deer, when Captain Clark, on enu- 
merating the animals found on the Columbia River below the 
falls, calls it the Mule Deer. By that name they ever after iden- 
tify it, except in a single instance. On their return in 1806, 
near where they first met it, they captured their last specimen, 
and called it Mule Deer. The excessive development of the ears 
well justified them in the name they gave it. In the Rocky 
Mountains, where the true black-tailed deer is not known, it is 
still called the Black-tatled Deer. On the Pacific Coast, where 
it ranges with the Columbia black-tailed deer, it is known by its 
true name, Mule Deer, by which designation it is also recognized 
by naturalists. The original habitat of this deer has not been 
very much restricted since its first discovery, though it has de- 
serted or become scarce on the Missouri River, and other hunted 
localities where the white man has too much disturbed its seclu- 
sion. Its most natural home is in the mountains, but it is found 
on the great plains hundreds of miles east of them, where it most 
affects the broken and arboreous borders of the streams. 
West of the Rocky Mountains this species of deer is met with 
almost everywhere. In the coast range north of San Francisco 
it is almost entirely replaced by the Columbia black-tailed deer, 
and south of that point this variety entirely gives place to the 
California variety. In Oregon, Washington Territory, and in 
British Columbia, the Mule Deer is met with, but not so abun- 
dantly as in the mountains further east, 
In the face of civilization they maintain their ground better 
than the wapiti deer. In flight they do not run like the com- 
mon deer but bound along, all the feet leaving and striking the 
ground together. For a short distance their flight is rapid but 
