252 American Deer 



herds, and serve by their scent to enable the members to keep together. 

 Virginian deer are certainly found in herds, and if some of the southern 

 forms should prove to be less gregarious, a reason for the abortion or 

 disappearance of the gland would be apparent. 



Whether regarded as species or sub-species, the various members of this 

 group are best recognised by the peculiar characters of the antlers, the small 

 ears, long tail, and, when present, by the small white metatarsal tuft. The 

 antlers are subject to an extraordinary amount of individual variation, and 

 in some of the smaller southern forms are so modified from the normal type 

 as to be a little difficult of recognition, although they apparently always 

 retain the large sub-basal snag. The specimen of which a side view is 

 shown in Fig. 68 is a very characteristic one, and displays the great length of 

 the latter snag and the undivided upper prong of the main fork. In the 

 one of which the front view is represented in Fig. 69 the sub-basal snag is 

 shorter, and the upper prong of the main fork divided. Should the numer- 

 ous local variations be regarded in the light of distinct species, it would be 

 necessary, in order to preserve some degree of equivalence in the divisions 

 employed, to raise the mule-deer and the Columbian black-tail to the rank 

 of a sub-genus (Eucervus of Gray), an alteration which would entail further 

 modifications in the scheme of classification adopted throughout this volume, 

 which is to minimise divisions so far as possible. 



Distribution. — North America to Peru, Bolivia, and Guiana. 



a. Virginian Race — Mazama Americana typica 



Plate XX 



Characters. — Size large, the height at the shoulder reaching to about 

 3 feet 1 inch. Antlers large. Usual colour of pelage of upper-parts in 

 summer bright rufous chestnut, with black markings on the face and tail ; 

 in winter speckled yellowish gray ; a transverse black band on the chin ; 

 tail chestnut or gray above, white beneath, with more or less black at the 

 tip on the upper surface. Metatarsal gland well developed, and situated 

 low down on the leg. Even in this race there appears to be a considerable 

 degree of colour variation. Mr. Caton observes that while in some examples 

 there is no appreciable difference in the colour of the upper-parts and of 

 the outer sides of the limbs between this race and the Columbian black-tail, 



