NORTH AMERICAN RUMINANTS 
The Deer are subject to much greater variations due to season 
than most other large mammals, and vary also greatly with age. 
Variations Loe young of the Elk and of all the smaller Deer are, 
inDeer at first, bay spotted with white. After a few months 
due to they change their dress for one of a more uniform and 
oe wholly different tint, while the adults have a summer 
dress very different from that worn in winter. The summer coat 
is short and comparatively fine in texture and generally is of 
some shade of yellowish brown or ‘“‘fawn color.” At the ap- 
proach of winter this 1s succeeded by new hair of a bluish cast, 
which later becomes brownish gray through the addition of the 
long, coarser hair that forms the winter coat. The exact tint varies 
with the species, but the fall and winter coats are always very 
different in general effect from the dress of summer. The sum- 
mer coat is commonly termed, in hunter’s parlance, the “red 
coat”’ and the fall dress the “‘ blue coat.” 
Besides the differences due to a change of coat with the change 
of the seasons, there are other differences due to age, as in the 
Differences Size and shape of the antlers, their absence in the fe- 
due to Age males at all seasons, and their presence in the males 
and Sex. during a portion of the year, and the very different 
appearance of the antlers when “‘in the velvet’? and when ma- 
ture. The Deer thus afford very effective material for Museum 
exhibits, and quite a series of specimens of the same species is 
required for its proper illustration. Such series, mounted in 
groups, with proper settings to show the nature of the diverse 
haunts characteristic of the different species, afford ample range 
for the skill of the taxidermist and abundant means for the pre- 
sentation of attractive museum exhibits, pleasing and instructive 
to the visitor, and form permanent records of species rapidly 
passing out of existence. 
HorRNED RUMINANTS. 
Having now passed in review the Deer tribe, we reach the 
Sheep and Ox tribes. Most prominent of these is the almost 
extinct American Bison, fortunately well represented in the 
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