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NATURAL HISTORY. 



When a bird or a wild animal is killed, that fs the end of it. If photographed, it may still live and its 

 educational and scientific value is multiplied indefinitely. 



MULE DEER AND BLACKTAIL. 

 I notice your remarks in Recreation 

 about mule deer being called blacktail deer. 

 What are the distinguishing features of 

 each? Is not a mule deer hornless? Are 

 whitetail deer also mule deer? 

 Recreation is doing a valuable work. 

 E. P. C, Santa Rita, N. M. 



ANSWER. 



Here are some extracts from "The Big 

 Game of North America," which answer 

 fully your inquiry as to the identity of 

 the mule deer and the blacktail deer. Re- 

 ferring to these 2 species of deer the 

 author says : 



Tn the Rocky mountains, where the true 

 blacktail deer is not known, the mule deer 

 is still" called the blacktail deer. On the 

 Pacific coast, where the mule deer ranges 

 with the Columbia blacktail, it is known by 

 its true name, mule deer, by which desig- 



Mu!e Deer, 

 nation it is also recognized by naturalists. 

 The original habitat of the mule deer has 

 not been much restricted since its first dis- 

 covery, though it has deserted or become 

 scarce on the Missouri river and other 

 hunted localities where the white man has 

 too much disturbed its seclusion. Its nat- 

 ural home is in the mountains, but it is 

 found on the great plains, hundreds of 

 miles East of them, where it most affords 

 the broken and arboreous borders of the 

 streams. 



"West of the Rocky Mountains, the mule 

 deer is met with almost everywhere. In 

 the Coast range, North of San Francisco, 



it is almost entirely replaced by the Colum- 

 bia blacktail deer, and South of that point 

 this variety entirely gives place to the Cali- 

 fornia variety. In Oregon, Washington, 

 and in British Columbia, the mule deer is 

 met with, but not so abundantly as in the 

 mountains farther East. 



"In the face of civilization, the mule 

 deer maintain their ground better than 

 the elk. In flight, they do not run like 

 the common deer, but bound along, all 

 the feet leaving and striking the ground 

 together. For a short distance the flight 

 is rapid, but soon seems to lag. Once, 

 when sitting on a crag in the Rocky moun- 

 tains 10,000 feet above the sea, I watched 

 a mule deer, which had been started by a 

 companion, as it bounded through the val- 

 ley 1,000 feet below. In a run of half a 

 mile, he showed evident fatigue. That the 

 labor of such a motion is greater than that 

 of the long, graceful leaps of the common 

 deer, must be manifest. 



"The limbs of the mule deer are larger 

 and coarser than those of the common deer. 

 The mule deer are less agile and elastic in 

 their motions, and are less graceful in 

 form. Their large, disproportioned ears 

 are their ugliest feature, and give tone to 

 the whole figure. 



"The summer coat is a pale, dull yellow. 

 Toward fall, this is replaced by a fine, 

 short, black coat, which rapidly fades to 

 gray. As the season advances, the hairs 

 of the winter coat grow larger, and so be- 

 come more dense, as well as of a lighter 

 color. Usually, in the forehead is a dark, 

 bent line in the form of a horseshoe, with 

 the toe downward. The brisket and belly 

 are black, growing lighter toward the um- 

 bilicus ; thence, posteriorly, a still lighter 

 shade prevails, till, at the inguinal region, 

 a dull white obtains. Between the thighs 

 it is quite white, widening toward the tail. 

 This white portion extends to one inch 

 above the tail, where it is 6 inches broad. 

 Lcwer, it is 8 inches broad, and lower still, 

 between the legs, it contracts to 4 inches in 

 breadth. Viewed posteriorly, this white 

 patch is a conspicuous object. Below the 

 knees and elbows, the legs are of a uniform 

 dark cinnamon color." 



The foregoing quotation is from the 

 chapter on the mule deer. 



Here is an extract from the chapter on 

 the Columbia blacktail deer: 



"By far the most common member of this 

 family, on the Pacific slope, is the Colum- 

 bia blacktail deer, so named because it 



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