JACKSON A HYBRID DEER 
141 
Very few of these hybrids have found their v/ay into mammal col- 
lections and, their direct hneage being unknown, any of them collected 
in their native habitat would have httle, if any, scientific value, in so 
far as studies in heredity are concerned. In March, 1917, the United 
States Biological Survey received a hybrid deer from Mr. A. S. Hormer, 
North Yakima, Washington, which had been raised in captivity by 
Mr. James Henderson. This specimen, a tanned skin accompanied 
by imperfect skull, is now numbered 223,685, United States National 
Museum, Biological Survey Collection. In regard to this animal Mr. 
Henderson writes: 
This deer was killed in January, 1915, and would have been 4 years old the 
following May. It was rather a tall rangy deer of good proportions and fairly 
large bones. It was born and raised in my enclosure and was killed on account 
of becoming so vicious as to be very dangerous. I procured his grandsire 
from Ellensburg, Washington, on the east slope of the Cascade Mountains. He 
was a fine specimen of mule deer, full blood. The granddame was secured near 
South Bend on Willapa Harbor on the coast of this state. She was a full blood 
Columbia black-tail. These two deer mated and produced a pair of female fawns. 
About the same time I procured a full blood mule doe from the same man who 
furnished me the mule buck, Mr. Chris Gray, of Ellensburg, Washington, now 
deceased. This doe was with fawn to a full blood Columbia black-tail buck 
owned by Mr. Gray. This mule doe gave birth to a pair of male fawns after she 
came into my possession and at about the same time as the other pair was born. 
I selected a female from one^pair and a male from the other pair of fawns and 
raised them until they bred and raised the deer of which you now have the skin 
and head. 
. . . . There are quite a few [hybrids] on the east slope of the Cascade 
Mountains, where a few full blood mule deer live, going down on the east side in 
winter, while the Columbia black-tail go down the west slope to winter. Owing 
to the small numbers of mule deer they sometimes cross breed in their wild state 
and readily cross in domestication when dependent on man for existence. (Letter 
to U. S. Biological Survey from James Henderson, Mabton, Washington, March 
29, 1917.) 
COMPARISON OF THE HYBRID WITH ITS PARENT SPECIES 
The ancestry of this animal (H^) is represented graphically in figure 1. 
Unfortunately none of the parents or grandparents of the specimen 
is available and all that can be attempted in the present paper is to 
compare it briefly with each of its parent species. The mule deer 
differs in external characteristics from the black-tail in that it is a larger 
animal; the ears are relatively longer, and larger in general; the hair 
on all surfaces of the tail for the proximal | to j of its length is white or 
whitish, whereas in the black-tail the upper surface of the tail is covered 
JOURNAL OF MAMMALOGY, VOL. 2 , NO. 3 
