THE WHITE-TAILED DEER 
129 
coloration” amongst animals. Indeed, so very 
flag-like is this creature’s waving tail that in the 
West many hunters call it the Flag-Tailed 
Deer. 
There are two points in which this deer differs 
from all others, and by which it can easily be 
recognized. 
1. Its antlers rise a short distance from the 
forehead, then suddenly drop forward, with the 
beam almost horizontal, and from the beam three 
long, sharp tines rise perpendicularly. The ant- 
lers of nearly all other deer point backward as 
they rise. 
2. The tail is very long, pointed at the end, 
bushy near the body, and ivhite underneath, as 
described above. 
The White-Tailed Deer is the best known of 
all our hoofed animals except the buffalo, be- 
cause it is the one most widely distributed, and 
has been longest known. Generally speaking, 
it is a United States species, for it inhabits at 
least a portion of every state and territory save 
Delaware, Oregon, Nevada, California and Ari- 
zona. To-day it is most abundant in the Adiron- 
dacks, Maine, Vermont, northern Minnesota and 
Michigan. Closely related forms of White-Tailed 
Deer are fairly abundant in Florida, on the Lower 
Rio Grande, and in northeastern Washington. 
As might naturally be expected, this wide dis- 
tribution, throughout such a diversity of country 
and variety of available food, has produced such 
vaiiations in size that several subspecies have 
been described. Of the latter, the most impor- 
tant is the dwarf Arizona White-Tailed Deer, 
extending from southern Arizona southeastward 
into Mexico to Latitude 25°. This animal, like 
the Florida White-Tailed Deer, seems to be 
nothing more than a diminutive race of the more 
robust northern type, with very small antlers, 
and the short, scanty pelage which is necessary 
to the comfort of deer in the tropics. 
In such forests as those which cover the Adi- 
rondack Mountains of northern New York, where 
small lakes are numerous, there are three methods 
of hunting deer. 
Hounding deer consists in beating through 
the forest surrounding a body of water, with a 
pack of hounds, and chasing the deer until they 
leap into the water, where they are shot at very 
short range by men in boats or posted on the 
shore. It is no credit to anyone, save an invalid 
or a cripple, to kill a deer in this manner, any 
more than to kill a buck out of season, whose 
antlers are in the velvet. Any person, no matter 
how stupid, can be paddled up to a swimming 
deer and permitted to blow its head to pieces at 
short range. Pot-hunters have even been known 
to catch swimming deer, and cut their throats. 
In forests like the Adirondacks, frequented by 
TAILS OF AMERICAN DEER. 
1. Columbian Black-Tail. 
2. Mule Deer. 
3. White-Tailed, or Virginia Deer. (Small specimen.) 
a great many people, hounding deer never should 
be permitted; and in the wilderness mentioned 
it is now prohibited by law. In the West Vir- 
ginia mountains, the hunters are posted on the 
runways of the deer, and are obliged to kill them 
on the run. This requires good judgment and 
excellent marksmanship, and is legitimate sport. 
Jacking or fire-lighting is a very picturesque 
and romantic method of hunting deer, but inas- 
much as it gives the game no chance, and calls 
for very little skill or exertion on the part of the 
hunter, it is by some considered unsportsman- 
like. In the prosecution of this plan the hunter 
requires a canoe, a skilful paddler, and a good 
light. With a flaring jack-light held aloft in the 
bow, the paddler, or guide, sits in the stern of the 
boat, and noiselessly paddles it through the dark- 
ness, around the shores of lake or river. The 
hunter sits under the light, and waits for its 
beams to emblazon the eyeballs of deer standing 
