THE OREGON SPORTSMAN 



There are still a few of these deer along the North Umpqua 

 river, in Douglas county, and in the Davis lake region of Crook 

 county. Eeports concerning the occurrence of this deer have 

 come from other sections, but there is no doubt that they 

 are extremely rare at the present time. Every effort should be 

 made to protect the few remaining White-tailed deer in Oregon 

 or the species may soon become extinct. 



The Mule deer is the largest of the three and can be told from 

 the others by the large ears, short white tail with a black tip, and 

 the "Y" on the large antlers. The winter color is steel gray, 

 changing to gray-brown in summer. 



In Oregon the Mule deer is found only east of the summit 

 of the Cascade mountains. They were formerly abundant over 

 the entire eastern portion of the state but are now restricted to 

 the more mountainous sections. In the northeastern part of the 

 state, and in Crook, Lake and Klamath counties, they are still 

 fairly plentiful. In southern Harney and Malheur counties, only 

 a small remnant of this noble game animal remains. In this sec- 

 tion are the Steens mountains, an ideal range for this species, but 

 several years ago hide hunters slaughtered them by the thous- 

 ands until now only a few remain. Through the efforts of the 

 State Game Warden, this range of mountains was set aside as a 

 state game refuge by the last legislature and it is to be hoped 

 that the Mule deer in this section will be left alone by hunters until 

 their numbers are increased and they spread out over the surround- 

 ing country. If this range is to be of any value in future as a 

 game refuge, there should be some grazing restrictions. At 

 present the entire range is being ruined by the unrestricted graz- 

 ing of large herds of sheep. Two other reserves were created 

 last year, in which the primary object was to protect Mule deer — 

 one in Crook and Lake counties, and another in the Blue moun- 

 tains, including parts of Baker and Wallowa counties. On this 

 latter reserve are found, in addition to the goodly number of 

 Mule deer, several head of elk and mountain sheep. The Mule 

 deer ranges over more open country than other deer in localities 

 where they are undisturbed. 



The Columbian Black-tailed deer is the smallest deer in Ore- 

 gon, and about the same color as the Oregon White-tail. The 



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