260 THE DEER OF AMERICA. 
altogether is scarcely distinguishable from that on the mule deer, 
except from its diminished size. These indicia of species I have 
found exactly alike, whether taken from specimens captured a 
thousand miles apart or bred in my grounds. 
The tarsal gland on this deer occupies about the same position 
as on the mule deer, is similarly shaped, but is a little less in 
extent. The tuft covering it differs from the other most strik- 
ingly in color. Instead of presenting a lightish yellow color on 
the surface it is a foxy red, and it presents but little change when 
opened, although careful inspection shows a darker shade near the 
skin; the hairs when individually examined are for the upper half 
a foxy red color, then they begin to turn a little gray, and near 
the lower end are a light brown. When the hairs of this tuft 
are spread out in excitement, no appreciable change of color is 
observed in the appearance of the tuft. Its individual character- 
istics are sufficiently pronounced to declare the species to which 
it belongs. 
Searcely less characteristic are these glands on the Virginia 
Deer, though from their wide distribution slight variations in size 
are found on those taken from widely different localities. Still, 
they possess such distinctive qualities as never to leave the least 
doubt as to the species to which they belong when nothing but 
the skin of that portion of the leg is examined. 
The tuft of hairs covering the metatarsal gland on the Virginia 
Deer commences six lines above the middle of the cannon bone, 
and extends downward one inch and six lines, and is nine lines 
broad, the posterior line extending a little beyond the posterior 
edge of the leg, as in all the other species. On the fully adult 
the naked portion, which is covered with the same hard black 
scale as the others, is nine lines long, the upper end of which is 
as near as possible at the longitudinal middle of the leg and is 
about two lines wide. 
The largest proportionate specimens I have found were on the 
coast of the Gulf of Mexico, although the animals are smaller 
than further north. The longest I have ever met with, on a me- 
dium sized animal, was one inch and one line long, and taken from 
an animal I found in the Mobile market; and on a yearling buck 
we killed on Negro Hummock near the mouth of Burwicks Bay, 
I found the naked portion nearly one inch in length. From all 
the specimens I have been able to examine, from near our south- 
ern border, I can scarcely doubt that this gland is appreciably 
larger on the Virginia Deer there than it is in this latitude, and 
