THE LARGER NORTH AMERICAN MAMMALS 



457 



ern Ontario to Florida and from the Atlantic 

 coast to the Great Plains; also in the Rocky 

 Mountains south to New Mexico, and in the 

 Cascades and Sierra Nevada to northern Cali- 

 fornia. 



The supreme importance of this deer to the 

 early settlers of the Eastern States is made 

 plain in all the literature covering the occupa- 

 tion of that region. Its flesh was one of the 

 most reliable staples in the food supply, and 

 not infrequently was the only resource against 

 starvation. In addition, the tanned skins served 

 for clothing and the sinews for thread. Many 

 of the most striking and romantic characters 

 in our early history appear clad in buckskin, 

 from fringed hunting shirt to beaded mocca- 

 sins. 



As no other American game animal equaled 

 the white-tail in economic value to the settlers, 

 so even to-day it remains the greatest game 

 asset in many of the Eastern States. Partly 

 through protective laws and partly through its 

 acute intelligence and adaptability, the Virginia 

 deer continues to hold its own in suitable 

 woodland areas throughout most of its former 

 range, and in recent years has pushed hundreds 

 of miles northward into new territory in On- 

 tario and Quebec. 



Even in the oldest and most densely popu- 

 lated States, as New York and Massachusetts, 

 white-tails still exist in surprising numbers. 

 Over 7,000 were killed during the hunting sea- 

 son of 191 5 in Maine, and an average of about 

 2,800 are killed yearly in Vermont. The great 

 recreational value of the white-tail to a host of 

 sportsmen is obvious. To the growing multi- 

 tude of nature lovers the knowledge that a 

 forest is inhabited by deer immediately endows 

 it with a delightful and mysterious charm. 



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 parties, sometimes of 

 considerable size, in dense deciduous growth, 

 where food is plentiful. There they remain 

 throughout the season, forming a "yard" by 

 keeping a network of hard-beaten paths open 

 through the snow in order to reach the browse 

 afforded by the bushes and trees. 



Ordinarily Virginia deer are shy and elusive 

 habitants of dense forests, where they evade 

 the unpracticed intruder like noiseless shadows. 

 Where they are strictly protected for a period 

 of years under State laws, they become sur- 

 prisingly confident and often damage young 

 orchards and crops on farms near their haunts. 

 Several States pay for the damage thus done. 

 Happily this attractive species thrives so well 

 under protective laws that its continued future 

 in our forests appears to be assured. 



ARIZONA WHITE-TAILED DEER 

 (Odocoileus couesi) 



The Arizona white-tails are slight and grace- 

 ful animals, like pigmy Virginia deer, so small 

 that hunters often ride into camp with a full- 

 grown buck tied back of the saddle. They have 



two seasonal pelages — gray in winter and more 

 rusty brown in summer. The antlers, very 

 small, but in form similar to those of the Vir- 

 ginia deer, are shed in winter and renewed be- 

 fore the end of summer. 



These handsome little deer, the smallest of 

 our white-tails, are common in many of the 

 wooded mountains of middle and southern 

 Arizona, southern New Mexico, western Texas, 

 and in the Sierra Madre of Chihuahua and 

 Sonora, Mexico. By a curious coincidence this 

 area was the ancient home of the Apache In- 

 dians and has had one of the most tragic his- 

 tories of our western frontier. 



During summer and early fall in the higher 

 ranges small bands of Arizona white-tails oc- 

 cupy the lower parts of the yellow-pine forests, 

 between 6,000 and 9,000 feet altitude, where 

 they frequent thickets of small deciduous 

 growth about the heads of canyons and 

 gulches. As winter approaches and heavy 

 snowstorms begin, they descend to warm can- 

 yon slopes to pass the season among an abun- 

 dant growth of pinyons, junipers, oaks, and a 

 variety of brushwood. 



In the White Mountains of Arizona, between 

 the years 1883 and 1890, when wild Lie was 

 more abundant than at present, I often saw, 

 on their wintering grounds, large herds of 

 these graceful deer, numbering from 20 to 

 more than 100 individuals. Such gatherings 

 presented the most interesting and exciting 

 sight, whether the animals were feeding in un- 

 conscious security or streaming in full flight 

 along the numberless little trails that lined the 

 steep slopes. Where these deer live on the 

 more barren and brush-grown tops of some of 

 the desert mountains in southwestern Arizona 

 and Sonora, the snowfall is so light that their 

 summer and winter range is practically the 

 same. 



Although far more gregarious than our other 

 white-tails, the herds of Arizona deer break 

 up in early spring. At this time one or two 

 fawns are born, amid early flowers in the 

 charming vistas of the open forest. Very 

 young fawns are hidden in rank vegetation 

 and sometimes left temporarily by their moth- 

 ers. If a horseman chances by the fawns may 

 rise and follow innocently at the horse's heels. 

 On such occasions I have had difficulty in driv- 

 ing them back to prevent their becoming lost. 



In the Sierra Madre of Chihuahua one sum- 

 mer I found these little white-tails occupying 

 "forms," like rabbits, located in the sheltering 

 matted tops of fallen pine trees which had been 

 overthrown by spring storms. In these shel- 

 ters they rested during the middle of the day, 

 secure from the wolves and mountain lions 

 which prowled about the canyon slopes in 

 search of prey. 



With the growing occupation of their terri- 

 tory by cattle and sheep and the increase in the 

 number of hunters, these once abundant deer 

 are rapidly diminishing. It is high time more 

 careful measures be taken for their conserva- 

 tion, else extermination awaits them through- 

 out most of their oria'inal haunts. 



