CERVIDiE 49 



to between the legs, dull white. Summer pelage; yellowish 

 brown to reddish brown. Young; brownish yellow more or less 

 regularly spotted with dull white. 



Length of male about 1575 mm. (62 inches) ; tail vertebrje 

 185 (7.25) ; hind foot 475 (18.65) ; ear from crown 240 (9.50). 

 Length of female about 1450 (57); tail vertebras 175 (6.90); 

 hind foot 445 (17.50) ; ear 225 (8.85). 



(Note: the length of the hind foot is the distance from the 

 point of the longest toe to the extremity of what is popularly 

 called the "knee" which is really the true heel. Ungulates walk 

 on the ends oi their toes) . 



Type locality, upper Missouri River. 



Tlie Mule Deer ranges over a large part of the United States, 

 from northern Arizona tO' British America, and from^ the great 

 plains to the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Mountains. In the 

 southern part of this range the true Mule Deer blends with the 

 two succeeding subspecies. It is moderately common on the 

 eastern slope O'f the northern part of the Sierra Nevada. It pre- 

 fers the foothills of mountain ranges and broken ground in plains,, 

 but is also found in mountains. The gait of the Mule Deer is. 

 less graceful than that of the Virginia Deer. The run is a series 

 of high bounds, rapid but too tiresome to be sustained long. 



The Mule Deer is easily distinguished from the Black-tailed 

 Deer and Virginia Deer and its western forms by the much 

 smaller tail, which is naked part way down on the under side and 

 has the terminal third black and the remainder white. The white 

 hairs wear away easily and frequently the middle of the tail i*; 

 very slender. The metatarsal glanid is the longest found on any 

 North American deer. The bare strip is easily seen by parting 

 the hairs over it, these hairs being longer than those of the 

 remainder O'f that side of the leg. 



The antlers are different from those of the white-tailed! 

 group of deer in one respect ; those of the latter species have an 

 indeterminate number of tines, aged bucks having numerous 

 lines, though these are only in a general way an index of his 



