20 The Mammals of Colorado 
Type locality. — Plains of the Kansas River, Kansas. 
Measurements. — Total length, 90; tail vert., 12. We have no 
measurements at hand of antlers of this form. Seton notes one 
from the Adirondacks having antlers 32 ins. long, and with a spread 
of 262 ins. This was the eastern, or rather the northern subspecies. 
The record for points is one killed in Texas, having 78 points. 
Description. — Summer pelage: Upper parts and outside of 
limbs reddish brown. 
Autumn pelage: Yellowish gray mixed with black; chin and 
throat white, dusky spot on chin ; under part of neck brownish gray ; 
legs pale brownish yellow; under parts white; tail, above reddish 
brown, beneath white. 
Distribution. — This form of the White-tailed Deer was formerly 
found throughout the plains of Kansas, Nebraska, and the Dakotas, 
and westward into the eastern portion of the Rocky Mountains, 
but apparently not reaching the Pacific slope of the Continental 
Divide, and ranges from near Edmonton, Alberta, southward into 
northern New Mexico. Through much of this territory it has been 
exterminated. It should be stated that according to Seton its 
range has recently been extended into Utah, "irrigation making 
more country possible for the species." 
In some portions of Colorado it was at one time common, but is 
now very rare. The only instances of its occurrence at the present 
time which I have been able to hear of are near Watervale, and in 
the Fisher's Peak region. Las Animas County, and on Cottonwood 
Creek, near Cotopaxi, Fremont County. 
Habits. — The White-tailed Deer is an inhabitant of the 
forests, woods, and swampy places rather than of the open 
or mountainous country. In the West it has been found 
more in the brushy bottoms along the streams, and this 
probably accounts for its whole or partial extermination in 
Colorado, at least, for these bottoms are usually the first 
places to be taken up by the settler, and especially was this 
the case on the plains before the days of irrigating ditches. 
The result is that the deer either leave or are killed off. The 
fact that these deer are very local in their habits, keeping 
within, or ''using," as the hunters say, in a small area is also 
a factor in this matter. The White-tail does not migrate 
from higher to lower ground with the approach of winter 
as the Mule Deer does but is an all-the-year-round resident. 
