MAMMALS OF UTAH 21 



used as winter range for cattle and sheep. E. C. Shepard of 

 Logan estimates that there are 250 mule deer in the Cache 

 national forest. William M. Anderson of Vernal informs 

 me: "Mule deer are fairly plentiful; they are pretty well 

 distributed over the entire Uinta mountain range. I believe 

 that a conservative estimate of the number within and ad-, 

 jacent to the Ashley national forest would be 3,500." I 

 have seen mule deer in the mountains west of Tooele City ; 

 and several have been taken in recent years from the can- 

 yons, immediately above Salt Lake City. 



Mr. F. A. Wrathall of Salt Lake City, taxidermist and a 

 very reliable observer, informs me that he has mounted 

 mule deer heads from every county in the state. 



Professor Marcus E. Jones informs me that he saw the 

 horns of the mule deer at Ibapah, in the western end of 

 Tooele county. 



Mr. S. B. Locke and H. S. Rutledge inform me that 

 these deer are fairly common over the entire LaSal Na- 

 tional forest, particularly along Upper Pack creek, and on 

 the desert between Grand and Green rivers. The Indians 

 hunt them persistently in the Blue mountains. 



Habits — The antlers of the mule deer are dichotomous, 

 that is, they are an arrangement of even forks instead of a 

 main brstnch with snags. 



Quieter than other cervidae the mule deer nevertheless 

 has varied sounds to express different feelings ; when curi- 

 ous, it "snorts" or "blows" ; when alarmed it "whistles" and 

 the doe murmers softly to her fawn, which "bleats" vocifer- 

 ously if lost. . Both bucks and does bleat like sheep when in 

 extreme danger; and the buck gives a bark or challenge in 

 the rutting season. Both stamp the forefeet in expressing 

 defiance or alarm. 



Though non-migratory in the strict sense of the word, 

 the mule deer will nevertheless ramble for a hundred miles 

 or more in search of meadows yet free from snow. Thus each 

 year hundreds desert the high Colorado ridges for the arid 

 or semi-arid brakes of Uinta county, Utah, a hundred or 

 more miles away. 



If undisturbed a group of two or three mule deer will 

 spend the entire summer season within a hundred acres of 

 hillside, and, especially so, if cover is good and pea vines 

 abound. As the snow melts in spring, the winter groups 

 scatter; and at this time the repulsion of feeling between 

 the sexes is so strong that does ramble off with does and 

 bucks with bucks, the latter with such equanimity that they 

 meander at times two and two all summer. 



