256 American Deer 



powerful blow on the head with the hoofs of his fore-feet, as to render me 

 unconscious. No sooner was I thrown upon the ground than the vicious 

 beast sprang upon me, and would doubtless have killed me outright had it 

 not been for the intervention of a man who rushed at him with a club and 

 finally drove him off. Both my father and myself have been knocked flat 

 upon the ground by being struck in the abdomen by the fore-feet of a very 

 harmless-looking doe." 



The fawns are born in the Adirondacks between the latter part of April 

 and the beginning of June ; two being the normal number at a birth and 

 one the exception. The spots usually persist till September, when both 

 young and old assume the winter pelage. The birth of an unspotted fawn 

 at Woburn Abbey has been already mentioned. 



With regard to the change of pelage, Mr. Caton writes as follows : — 

 " The change from the summer to the winter coat is gradual, the new dis- 

 placing the old by dislodging the hairs promiscuously, till they become so 

 thin that the new coat is seen through the old. This is not simultaneous 

 over the whole animal, for the neck and shoulders may be clothed entirely 

 with the new dress, while the old still prevails on the thighs and rump ; 

 or the winter coat may have replaced the old on the back, while the belly 

 still shows only the summer pelage. When the winter has replaced the 

 summer garb, the hairs are short, fine, and soft ; but they rapidly grow in 

 length and diameter, and undergo the change of colour peculiar to the 

 species. At first they lie down smoothly, but presently the diameter 

 becomes so great that they force each other up to a mere vertical position, 

 or at right angles to the skin. As the diameters increase, the cavities 

 within enlarge and become filled with a very light pith ; and the hairs 

 become brittle and lose their elasticity, so that the integrity of the walls is 

 destroyed when sharply bent, and they remain in the given position." 



In the Adirondacks Dr. Merriam states that the time of changing the 

 coat varies somewhat according to the season, and that it is not even 

 constant in all the deer of any one locality in any particular season. The 

 difference seems to depend largely upon the degree of severity of the 

 winters, and the consequent good or bad condition of the animals. After 

 an unusually hard winter, when the deer are half-starved, the change is 

 delayed, and the red summer dress is not assumed till late in June or even 

 the beginning of July; the reassumption of the blue in autumn being 



