62 Firtp Museum or Naturar Hisrory — Zodocy, Vor. XI. 
Description — Adult: Color of sexes similar; antlers of male as illus- 
trated, rarely exceeding 29 inches in length and usually less; in 
summer, general color, reddish brown; belly, under surface and tip 
of tail, inner side of legs and a patch on the throat, white; a whitish 
band across the nose and a ring around each eye; a blackish spot on 
each side of the chin; upper surface of tail dusky; in winter, general 
color grayish or grayish brown. Female normally without horns. 
Young: Reddish brown or bright bay, spotted with white; 
the spots gradually fade and disappear when the fawn is between 4 
and 5 months old. 
Measurements — Adult male: Length, about 60 to 68 inches; tail, about 
10 inches (to end of hairs about 3 inches more); height at shoulder 
variable, about 36 inches. 
Although formerly Deer were very abundant throughout Illinois, 
they are now practically exterminated in the state. It is claimed that a 
very few still linger in the extreme southern counties. Mr. B. T. Gault, 
in a letter to me, dated January 20, 1910, writes: “In the fall of 1900 
there were several Deer in the hill country not far from Thebes, Alexander 
County (southern Illinois), but I have since been told that they have all 
been killed off.”” He later kindly sent me a letter from Mr. C. J. Boyd 
of Anna, Illinois, dated April 7, 1910, in which he writes: ‘‘ There are a 
few Deer in the hills in this county and in Alexander County. It was 
reported that a doe and two fawns were seen close to the line of this 
county and Alexander County last summer” (1909). Butler states 
(Proc. Ind. Acad. Sci., 1895, p. 83) that a Deer was seen in Newton 
County,* Indiana, in 1891. Mr. E. J. Chansler of Bicknell, Knox 
County, Indiana, writes: ‘The last wild Deer was reported from near 
Red Cloud by the late N. B. Edwards in 1893.’’ This seems to be the 
last record for that state. 
In Wisconsin, where Deer are still abundant in the more northern 
counties, they are larger and are recognized as a distinct race (0. »., 
borealis), the difference, however, being mainly one of size. 
In the southern states two other geographical races are recognized, | 
the Louisiana Deer and the Florida Deer, the latter being decidedly 
smaller than the Virginia Deer, full grown bucks often weighing not 
over 110 pounds. These, however, are smaller than the average, and I 
have killed at least one specimen in southern Florida which weighed 
more than 200 pounds.t 
Deer hunting is a favorite sport for many people, and I plead guilty 
of having killed a considerable number in my time; but as we grow older 
* Newton County, Indiana, borders Illinois in the Kankakee region, 
_ |} For many years I carried steelyards with me in the field for the purpose of 
weighing large game. One buck weighed 204 tbs., and during a dozen years I have 
killed others which I did not weigh but which were fully as large. 
