CARIACUS VIRGIN I ANUS. 
9 
CHAPTER II. — Concluded. 
CONTINUATION OF MAMMALIA. FROM VOL. I, P. 106 
CARIACUS VIRGINIANUS (Bodd.) Gray. 
Common Deer ; Virginia Deer ; Red Deer ; White-tailed Deer. 
Deer are at present so abundant in most parts of the Adirondacks 
that they outnumber all the other large mammals together, and this in 
spite of the fact that during the present century alone hundreds ot 
them have perished of cold and starvation, hundreds have been killed 
by wolves and panthers, and thousands by their natural enemy, man. 
And there is every reason to believe that if proper game laws are 
enforced, their numbers will not materially decrease. 
This beautiful and graceful animal, by far the fleetest of our mam- 
malia, roams over all parts of the Wilderness, being found high upon 
the mountain sides, as well as in the lowest valleys and river bot- 
toms. It trequents alike the densest and most impenetrable thickets, 
and the open beaver meadows and frontier clearings. During the 
summer season, which is here meant to apply to the entire period ot 
bare ground, loosely reckoning, from the first of May to the first ot 
November, its food consists of a great variety of herbs, grasses, marsh 
and aquatic plants, the leaves ot many deciduous trees and shrubs, 
blueberries, blackberries, other fruits that grow within its reach; and, 
largely, of the nutritious beech-nut. While snow covers the ground, 
which it commonly does about half the year, the fare is necessarily 
restricted; and it is forced to subsist chiefly upon the twigs and buds 
of low deciduous trees and shrubs, the twigs and foliage of the arbor 
vitae, hemlock, and balsam, and a few mosses and lichens. In winters 
succeeding a good yield of nuts the mast constitutes its staple article 
of diet, and is obtained by following the beech ridges and pawing up 
the snow beneath the trees. 
