COAT AND COLOR. 125 
slight protection against the flies and mosquitoes, which so fre- 
quently infest the native ranges of these animals. The summer 
coat is longest and most dense on the Columbia deer, and so 
affords the best protection against insects, though it may be too 
warm for comfort on a hot day. 
The great objective point for the flies and mosquitoes, is the 
face, from the eyes to the nose. If there is a fly in the forest he 
will be sure to be found on the deer’s face, which after a while 
seems to become quite insensible, for I have often observed them 
quite happy taking corn from my hand while the face was half 
covered with bloated mosquitoes. The insects, however, do not 
confine themselves to this favorite locality, but attack every vul- 
nerable point where the hair is thin and short. 
This summer coat is worn but three months or less. By 
August it begins to disappear, and by September is entirely re- 
placed by a new garb. This at first is always fine and short, 
but the hairs grow rapidly in length and diameter, till by winter 
they form a dense mass, which bids defiance to the bleakest 
winds and the coldest storms. 
For some years after I had commenced my observations I 
believed that our Elk had but one pelage during the year, and so 
was an exception to the general rule which governs this genus. 
One day in September, long after I had publicly announced this 
as a fact to a scientific body, I was startled to observe on the 
side of an Elk a slight difference in the color between the upper 
and the lower portions of the side, although the line of demarca- 
tion was not well defined. I at once suspected that I had fallen 
into an error. J continued my observations, long and anxiously 
scrutinizing every part of each individual in the band, which I 
could induce to come sufficiently near for the purpose. At last 
it became perfectly clear that I had been in error. The summer 
coats were disappearing and were being replaced by the new coats, 
but the new were in length and color so nearly like the old, and 
the process was so gradual that it had been hitherto overlooked, 
although it had often been the subject of examination. The 
truth is I had not known how to examine for it, for it had not 
occurred to me that the old and the new could be so nearly alike, 
and that the new hairs could spring up among the old ones so 
gradually, and be so well calculated to elude the scrutiny of the 
observer. After I learned how to examine and comprehended the 
mode of the change, the evidence of the truth rapidly accumu- 
lated, till finally the whole process appeared perfectly plain. I 
