Report of C3apertniendent of Forests 

 on tf)e Adirondack Deer. 



To tt)e Commissioners of Fisheries, dame and Forests 



#a 



K JI 



N submitting my report on the number of deer 



killed last season in the Great Forest of Northern 



New York, I have prefaced the statistics with a 



few paragraphs on the habits and characteristics of 



the Adirondack deer. 



The deer, wherever it exists, has always been 



regarded with interest and admiration on account of 



its fleetness, grace and beauty, in which it far surpasses all other quadrupeds. It also 



furnishes a staple article of food, while the pursuit of this game yields to the hunter 



and sportsman the keenest delight. 



The species which inhabits our northern forest is known variously as the Virginia 

 Deer, Red Deer, Common Deer, and White-tailed Deer. It is classified by the 

 naturalists as belonging to the order of the Ungulata, the family of the CervidcB, and 

 the species Cariacus Virginianus, or Ccrvits Virginianus. The name given to the species 

 would indicate that it was first observed by the naturalists in Virginia. 



Its habitat extends from the Canadian forests southward to the Gulf of Mexico, 

 and from the Atlantic coast westward to the Missouri River. In the Southern States, 

 especially in the Carolinas where this kind of game is still found, the species is inferior 

 in size, being fully one-third smaller than the northern deer. The Adirondack deer, 

 while not exhibiting, perhaps, the very largest and finest type, will compare favorably 

 with those of Maine and Michigan where the species is seen at its best. In the Adiron- 

 dack region it attains a maximum weight of about 350 lbs. The largest recorded size, 

 a buck killed in Warren county, showed a height of 4 feet 3 inches over the withers, 

 with a length from nose to tip of tail of 9 feet 7 inches. 



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