20 RAISING DEER IN THE UNITED STATES. 



a restocking of some of the former ranges of the elk, and from which 

 also a profitable business of raising the animals for market may be 

 developed. At the present time no other member of the deer family 

 seems to offer so promising a field for ventures in breeding for profit. 

 Details of management and records of experience in breeding the elk 

 will be given in another part of this bulletin. 



W T HITE-TAILED DEER. 



The common deer of the United States is the whitetail, or Virginia, 

 deer (Odocoileus virginianus) . The species is widely distributed 

 and, including the half dozen geographic races that occur within 

 our borders, the range of this deer includes nearly all the United 

 States, except large parts of Utah, Arizona, California, Oregon, 

 and Washington. It is extinct in Delaware and practically so in sev- 

 eral States of the Middle West; but it is still fairly common over 

 the greater part of its original range. A number of nearly related 

 species occur south of our borders. 



The whitetail is the best known of our native deer and has been 

 bred in semidomestication in many localities. Its suitability for 

 parks is unquestioned, and in large preserves it increases very rapidly. 

 It has not always done well, owing to diseases, but the difficulties 

 in the way of rearing it successfully are not greater than those that 

 attend the management of some of our domestic animals. Its habits 

 and management are discussed later. 



MULE DEER. 



The mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) (Plate III, fig. 2) is larger 

 than the whitetail, and, though less widely distributed than that 

 species, had originally a vast range on the western side of the con- 

 tinent. Including the six subspecies, or geographic races, it occurred 

 from the Missouri Eiver westward to California and southward into 

 Lower California and Sonora. East of the Continental Divide its 

 range extended north into British Columbia, Alberta, and other 

 provinces to latitude 56° or 57°, and south into Texas. This range 

 has been greatly diminished by the encroachments of settlements 

 and the lack of protecting laws, but the animals are still fairly com- 

 mon in scattered localities except in the open plains country. 



Outside of its natural range the mule deer has seldom thrived. 

 Indeed, many of the attempts to acclimatize it east of the Mississippi 

 have failed. In zoological gardens the animals often die of dis- 

 eases of the digestive organs, but in several places they do fairly 

 well and have bred. They seem to have been thoroughly acclima- 

 tized in the large park belonging to the late William C. Whitney, 



