MAMMALS OF UTAH 17 



purest and grayest on the neck (nearly the same all 

 round) and head, the long hairs on the top of the head only 

 being more fulvous. The chin and throat are dull white, 

 the former without any band, but merely a dusky spot on 

 the side ; there is also a suffusion of dusky on the sides and 

 on the top of the upper jaw just behind the muzzle, but no 

 continuous ring. The ears are uniformly brownish gray, 

 lined and pointed somewhat with dusky, the concavity and 

 the basal portion behind being white. The under part of 

 the neck, from the white patch beneath the head to be- 

 tween the forelegs is of the same brownish gray, with a 

 slight sooty tinge posteriorly; the rest of the under parts 

 to the tail are opaque white. The under part of the tail 

 and the region around the anus are also white, but ap- 

 parently less conspicuously so than in C. virginianus. The 

 upper surface of the tail is of a uniform reddish brown, 

 brighter than elsewhere on the body. The legs are of a 

 nearly uniform pale brownish yellow, rather lighter inter- 

 nally. (Baird.) In the summer pelage the upper parts 

 and the outside of the limbs are reddish brown. The fawns 

 are spotted. Warren gives the total length as 90 inches 

 with tail vertebrae, 12 inches. 



Distribution — The former range of this deer extended 

 from Kansas, Nebraska and the Dakotas westward into the 

 Rocky mountains, and from Alberta to northern Mexico. 

 Seton says that its range has recently been extended into 

 Utah, where irrigation favors it. William M. Anderson of 

 Vernal, Utah, says that there are probably 175 to 200 head 

 in that part of the state, most of them being found along 

 the Green River canyon in places that are entirely shut off 

 from game hunters on account of the topography of the 

 country. 



Mr. F. A. Wrathall informs me that while he has never 

 mounted a white-tailed deer head that he knew to have come 

 from Utah, he has nevertheless, been told by many old set- 

 tlers that in the very earliest pioneer days this species was 

 quite common in the swamp that was formed by City Creek 

 on the site of the present Bonneville Park within the city 

 limits of Salt Lake City. The same was true of a swamp 

 at the mouth of Mill Creek Canyon, Salt Lake county. 



Habits — In summer white- tails are usually solitary or 

 wander through the forest in parties of two or three. In 

 winter, where the snowfall is heavy, they gather in par- 

 ties, sometimes of considerable size, in dense deciduous 

 growth, where food is plentiful. There they remain through- 

 out the season, forming a "yard" by keeping a network of 



