THE MULE DEER 



127 



1892-3-4-5 and 6 than passed during the whole 

 month of October, 1902. 



"There are a lot of deer, it is true, on the north 

 slope of the divide at Pagoda and Sleepy Cat 

 mountains, and eastward in the Williams Fork 

 country; but they are practically the remnant. 

 People here say, 'You can't enforce a close-sea- 

 son law.'" (Outdoor Life Magsizme.) 



The Mule Deer reaches its largest and finest 

 antler development in the Rocky Mountains, 

 from Colorado to southern British Columbia. The 

 few widely-scattered survivors of this species are 

 found to-day in central Chihuahua and Sonora, 

 Mexico ; western Colorado and Wyoming, south- 

 eastern Idaho, central Montana, and eastern 

 British Columbia. One fact which militates 

 most strongly against the perpetuation' of this 

 species is that states and provinces sufficiently 

 wild and unsettled to afford it a home are finan- 

 cially unable to maintain the large force of sala- 

 ■ ried game-wardens which alone could really pro- 

 tect it from final annihilation. 



Ki3llefi, Photo. Copyright, 1900, N. Y. Zoological Society. 

 MULE DEEH WITH ANTLERS IN THE VELVET. 



This species ranges as far east as western Da- 

 kota, and westward to the Blue Mountains of 

 Oregon. Formerly it was most numerous in 

 Routt County, Colorado, where about forty-five 

 hundred were slaughtered as late as the winter 

 of 1900. Unfortunately, on account of its pref- 

 erence for open country, its ultimate extinction 

 in the United States is only a cjuestion of about 

 ten years; for everywhere, .save in the Yellow- 



stone Park, it is being destroyed very much 

 faster than it breeds. 



The Mule Deer nearly always produces two 

 fawns at a birth, and sometimes three. In feed- 

 ing it is much given to browsing on twigs and 

 foliage, but it also grazes freely when good grass 

 is available. In the Snow Creek country of 

 central Montana I found that its October bill 

 of fare consisted almost solel}' of the long-leaved 

 mugwort (Artemisia tomentosa), a species of very 

 pungent and spicy sage, which was eaten greedily 

 to the complete exclusion of the finest grasses 

 I ever saw in the West. 



In running, this deer often progresses by a 

 series of stiff-legged leaps, in which it touches 

 the ground lightly with its hoofs, bounds upward 

 as if propelled by steel springs, and flies forward 

 for an astonishing distance. In Manitoba and a 

 few other localities this remarkable gait has 

 caused this animal to be called the Jumping 

 Deer. Owing to the fact that it fives in a dry 

 climate and rarefied atmosphere, and subsists 

 on very dry foods, it is difficult to acclimatize it 

 anywhere outside of its own home. East of the 

 Mississippi most Mule Deer die of gastro-enteritis, 

 but in the Hon. William C. Whitney's great park 

 on October Mountain, near Lenox, Mass., this 

 species has actually become acclimatized. 



The Columbian Black-Tailed Deer, ^ of the 

 Pacific Coast, is smaller than the typical white- 

 tailed deer, and ^'ery much smaller than the 

 mule deer. The outer surface of its tail is black 

 all over, and constitutes the best distinguishing 

 character of the species. The antlers are very 

 variable. Occasionally those of old bucks ex- 

 hibit the double Y on each beam which is so 

 character'stic of the mule deer; but in most 

 ca.ses. the double bifurcation is wanting, and the 

 antlers look very much like those of the white- 

 tailed deer. In its body colors it resembles the 

 latter species more closely than the mule deer. 



This species inhabits the well-watered and 

 densely-shaded coniferous forests of the Pacific 

 coa-st from the north end of Vancouver Island 

 to central California. It feeds freely upon ever- 

 green foliage, and I have seen a captive animal, 

 in its native forest in the great natural park at 

 Vancouver, partake freely of the foliage of spruce, 

 Douglass fir and juniper, in rapid succession. 



Because of some diatetic peculiarity as yet un- 

 ' O-do-coW e-us co-tum-bi-an'us. 



