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 ^he y° un & °f tne Elk and of all the smaller Deer are, 

 in Deer at first, bay spotted with white. After a few months 

 due to they change their dress for one of a more uniform and 



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 is 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 s i ze an< ^ 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. 



Horned 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 



