THE GLANDS. 267 
sponding to that of the mule deer or the Columbia deer, with 
either a white or a black band around it, I could not hesitate to 
declare that it belonged to neither of those species, nor yet to any 
of the others which I have described. 
It will be observed that there is a great similarity in the color, 
and not a very wide difference in the extent of the tufts over the 
metatarsal glands on the Virginia deer and the wapiti, while 
they differ widely in their location, and especially in that on the 
latter the gland is entirely overgrown with the white hairs, while 
on the former the gland is covered with a horny scale and is en- 
tirely destitute of hairs, except around its outer and nearly dor- 
mant border upon which most of the white hairs grow. 
In the mule and the Columbia deer they closely resemble each 
other, in shape and location, and differ principally in extent, and 
appreciably in color; and this is so marked on all the individuals 
of each species, as to separate them widely, and leave no difficulty 
in determining as to which any given specimen belonged. If 
from the fawn of ‘the mule deer and so no larger than from an 
adult black-tailed deer, the entire absence of the horny crust, 
or concentrated exudation from the gland, would remove all doubt 
as to where it should be placed. 
I now see that I have omitted to mention in the proper place, 
that this horny crust does not appear upon the fawn, but later, 
after the secretions of the gland have been emitted and concen- 
trated, and this increases in thickness and in density with the 
age of the animal. 
Once I had three female black-tailed deer sent me from Ore- 
gon, by Dr. Plummer. The long voyage told severely upon them, 
and all arrived very poor, and one sick. In defiance of the most 
careful attention, she continued ill for two months, when she 
dropped two fawns. She lived a month longer and died. The 
fawns were scarcely a third the natural size and were unable to 
‘stand, but when fed with warm cows’ milk they were soon able to 
stagger about, but both died in a couple of days. On both these 
premature fawns, as I suspect they were, the metatarsal glands 
were entirely overgrown with soft, fine hairs. About a month 
later both the other does dropped a fawn each, which were small 
and emaciated, but I think mature, on which this gland was 
naked, in the middle at least, but appeared to be more encroached 
upon by fine, short hairs than on the adults. These fine hairs 
soon disappeared from the spaces where there are no hairs on the 
adults. These seemed to thrive moderately well for about four 
