536 THE QUADRUPEDS OF ARIZONA. 
ginian, or of the Columbian Deer. At their roots they 
are corrugated and nodulated for a short distance, when a 
small curved basal snag is given off. Near the middle 
they fork into two about equal branches, being widened 
and flattened just at the point of divarication. Each of 
these branches is again dichotomous not far from its 
. middle, one of the terminal forks being ordinarily larger 
than the other. The whole amount of curvature of the 
main stem of the antler is rather less than in some other 
species. The horns are shed in the spring, and the new 
ones are in the velvet during the great part of the sum- 
mer. By October, both sexes have finished changing 
their light coarse summer vesture for the softer and 
thicker winter coat, which, for some time after the change 
is completed, is extremely sleek and glossy. Its color is 
darker than it is in summer, being chiefly mouse-gray, 
finely waved or annulated with lighter and darker shades. 
In summer, there is much of a brownish or even fulvous 
tinge on many parts. The fawns are brought forth in 
June or July, either one or two at a time. They are 
at first of a light reddish-brown,—whence our familiar 
term “fawn-color,”—beautifully spotted with pure white, 
` which is mostly disposed in straight rows. 
Except at certain seasons, this deer is more apt to be 
found singly than in herds of any size. But frequently in 
the autumn two or three are seen together; and on one 
occasion in October, I enjoyed the rare sight of twenty or 
thirty feeding together in a little open glade among thick 
pine woods. It is not an inhabitant of open prairie land, 
and is but rarely to be seen in such situations. Thinly 
wooded tracts of country, interspersed with oaks or juni- 
pers; hills and mountain sides covered with pines, as 
well as those places known as “chaparrals,” are its favor- 
