ORNAMENTAL COAT. 157 
of these spots are discernible from the shoulder back; on others 
they may be counted to the hips, and on others again the entire 
twenty-one. 
On one specimen only, —an old doe which was raising a fawn, 
and was quite thin, as is always the case under such circum- 
stances, —I observed these spots represented by tufts of the 
summer coat remaining, while all around the.summer coat was 
entirely replaced by the new winter dress. It would be curious 
to know what was the condition of affairs beneath the cuticle 
under these spots which had retarded the growth of the new coat, 
and had served to retain the old, while all around was changed. 
Although I have but once observed this, when I could count all 
the spots thus shown, as it continued but a day or two, it may 
frequently have occurred without observation. I have on several 
others seen a part of the spots shown by tufts of the summer 
coat remaining. 
These rows of spots on the back of the adults occupy the same 
positions as the rows on the back of the fawn, but are more reg- 
ular in form and more detached. While the spots on the fawn 
are more distinct, from the contrast of colors, they are irregular 
in form and many of them confluent. I may make out the six- 
teen spots, for instance, on the fawn, between the shoulder and 
the hip, but I can as well make out twenty or more, for I must 
count several confluent or double spots to reduce them to the 
number to correspond with those on the adult. Again, on the 
neck of the fawn these lines of spots extend quite up to the ears, 
and are there even more brilliant than along the back, while 
I have never detected one on the neck of the adult. Still I can- 
not persuade myself but that there is some connection between 
these spots on the fawns and those on the adults, and the sugges- 
tion sometimes forces itself upon me that the Virginia Deer, at 
least, and, possibly, all the others, were once spotted like the fal- 
low deer, and that this ornamentatiom has nearly died out on the 
adults, and may in time disappear on the fawns, as it has already 
nearly disappeared on the young-of the moose and the caribou, 
and has even now much: faded -on the elk and the mule deer. 
I believe these spots on the adult Virginia Deer have been en- 
tirely overlooked by naturalists till I mentioned them to Mr. 
Darwin, when he noticed them in “‘ Descent of Man.” 
My opportunities for studying the ornamental coat of the Aca- 
pulco Deer have been limited. I have in my collection two 
fawns, produced out of season by a doe of this species in my 
