COAT AND COLOR. 149 
In some specimens, as already shown, there is no appreciable 
difference in the color of the back, sides, outside of the thighs 
and neck, between the Virginia Deer and the Columbia black- 
tailed deer. But the rich russet shade of the Columbia deer is 
not common on the Virginia Deer. In general, there is a bluish 
shade observed on the Common Deer, which is so prevalent as to 
have given the winter coat the general appellation, as already 
shown, of the dlue, among frontiersmen and hunters, who say the 
deer is in the red or the blue, as it may be in the summer or the 
winter coat. But the difference in the depth of this color is so 
very great, as well as the different shades of color, as to surprise 
one who will examine thirty or forty together. As the winter 
advances, all become appreciably of a lighter color. 
On this deer, as on all the others of the smaller species, the 
white which universally prevails on the under side of the head, 
terminates with the throat, or just after it reaches the upper part 
of the neck. Thence the under side of the neck has no white, 
but is of the prevailing color of the rest of the neck, until we 
reach the lower extremity. There commences a black, or, on 
some specimens, a brown stripe, which is always constant, and 
extends along the brisket to a line even with the posterior part 
of the fore legs. On either side of this black stripe all is white, 
which extends down the inside of the fore-legs to the knees. All 
of the belly is also a very pure white, embracing also the inside 
of the thighs and hind legs to the hocks, and up to the tail. 
This is constant on all the Virginia Deer, but on no other species. 
This white of the belly widens all the way back from the fore 
legs to the umbilicus, when it involves all the under side of the 
animal. The white on the lower part of the legs varies much 
in extent on different individuals, as has been elsewhere stated. 
On some specimens there is a beautiful gray mark on the inner 
front side of the fore leg four or five inches long, and two inches 
wide at the upper end, and terminating in a point, below which 
it is separated from the white beyond by a tawny stripe extend- 
ing from the body down to, and enveloping the lower leg. 
The individual hairs are always intensely black at their ex- 
tremities, with sharp points for perhaps two lines or more, then 
a lighter shade of about the same extent. Then again they be- 
come darker, but presently begin to grow lighter, till on the 
lower parts they are white or a light drab. 
The under coat of fur is present with the winter coat, but not 
very: abundant. It is irregularly and loosely curled around 
