218 BULLETIN 56, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



and squatters, and all have made war alike upon the large game. During the 

 last two years only four elk bnve been killed on the eastern slope of the White 

 Mountains and on Black Kiver. In the fall of 1885 I found a few elk signs 

 in the spruce .thickets on the sunnnit of the Blue Range, which separates the 

 Black from the Blue River. Some small trees with the bark rubbed off showed 

 where the bull elks had rubbed the velvet from their horns in summer, so a few 

 must remain there yet at that season. 



In January, 1884, during a trip through the Nigrita Mountains in New 

 Mexico, on the Nigrita Creek, one of the headwaters of the San Francisco River, 

 I saw a cow and calf elk hung before a hunter's cabin and was told that at the 

 beginning of winter a band of seven elk had been found in these mountains and 

 had been hunted until only two remained alive at the time of my visit, and they 

 expected to get these before spring. The hunters had crossed the mountains in 

 every direction, and the members of the band mentioned were said to be the 

 only ones in these mountains. 



They were formerly abundant in these mountains and on to the east through 

 all of the high Mogollon Range in New Mexico. 



In the White Mountains of Arizona tlie elk have their rutting season in 

 October and November. At this time the bulls travel much during the night. 

 In October, 1884, one passed close by my camp, on the head of Black River, one 

 night, giving a hoarse bellow every half mile or so. 



Their horns are shed in February or March and by the end of the following 

 June are full grown again. 



The middle of June, 1885, I obtained a fine full-grown set of six pointed 

 antlers in the velvet. In August and September the velvet is shed. 



The calves are born in May and June. The curious and at times unaccount- 

 able stupidity of this animal renders it very often an easy prey to the hunter. 

 In one instance a cowboy riding about the head of Black River came upon a 

 small park in which a cow elk and her calf were feeding, and riding quietly to 

 the edge of the trees with his rope in hand he made a sudden dash and before 

 the elk could make up their minds to get out of the way he had the calf roped 

 and took it home with him. 



It was readily tamed, but was killed accidentally some weeks later. The 

 hunter who obtained the antlers in the velvet for me found the elk asleep in a 

 dense growth of ferns behind a log. The hunter's attention was first drawn to 

 the spot by seeing the tops of the antlers as they swayed slowly back and forth 

 over the ferns. Walking cautiously up to the side of the log and only about 

 20 feet from the elk the hunter stamped heavily upon the ground with one foot. 

 The elk at once reared its head above the ferns and was killed by a shot through 

 the brain. All the antlers' I have seen in this region are much smaller, and less 

 robust, or more slender than those I have seen in Colorado and from other 

 northern points. Like the deer, the elk of this region is smaller than are those 

 found farther north. The favorite resorts of these animals are portions of the 

 mountains where dense thickets of spruce or other trees give good shelter in 

 close proximity to open parks and streams of clear, cold water. Brook trout 

 are numerous in these streams, and it is a curious fact that the range south of 

 the elk is, so far as I have ascertained, coincident with that of the mountain 

 trout, the true aalmo. 



The interesting book, by Maj. John G. Bourke, entitled On the 

 Border with Crook (2d ed., 18!)'2), contains several references to the 

 Arizona elk, among them the following : 



It was through the country of the tribes to the south that the Spaniards first 

 were brought face to face with the " Tinneh " of Arizona, and it was from these 



