128 



ORDERS OF MAMMALS— HOOFED ANIMALS 



known, the Columbian Black-Tailed Deer can- 

 not live on the Atlantic coast. After persistent 

 efforts, with at least fifteen specimens drawn 

 from Oregon, Washington and British Columbia, 

 and the loss of all through gastro-enteritis, the 

 New York Zoological Society has abandoned its 

 attempt to transplant the species. 



In Alaska, this species dwindles still lower, 

 into the Sitka Deer, 1 in stature and antlers 



it freely risks its life in the thin fringes of cotton- 

 wood timber, quaking-asp and willow brush that 

 border the banks of small rivers and large creeks. 

 Unlike the elk and mule deer, the White-Tail is a 

 great skulker. When hiding, it crouches and 

 carries its head low, and by clinging persistently 

 to the friendly cover of brush or timber, saves 

 itself under circumstances that would be fatal 

 to any high-headed, open-ground species. 



Painted by Carl Rungius. 



WHITE-TAILED DEER. 



even smaller than the Florida white-tail. It is 



very abundant on Admiralty Island, but as late 



as 1901 was being slaughtered in great numbers. 



The Virginia Deer, or White-Tailed Deer,- 



was the first member of the Deer Family met by 

 the early settlers of America when they went 

 hunting along the Atlantic coast. It will also 

 be the last of the large hoofed animals of North 

 America to become extinct. It is a forest animal, 

 but in many portions of the Great Flains region 



1 Q-do-coiV e-us sit-ken'sis. 

 ! Odocoileus vir-gin-i-an'us. 



The White-Tailed Deer derives its name from 

 its very long, bushy, wedge-shaped tail, which is 

 snowy-white underneath, and also on the edges. 

 When alarmed and running away, this white 

 brush is held stiffly aloft, and with every stride 

 of the bearer, it sways from side to side, in a start- 

 ling and highly conspicuous manner. While the 

 peculiar mixed gray color of the pelage makes 

 it difficult to see this animal in brushy surround- 

 ings, the moment the creature starts to run, its 

 white flag waves as if purposely inviting bullets, 

 and in total defiance of all the laws of "protective 



