Journal of Mammalogy 
Published Quarterly by the American Society of Mammalogists 
VoL. 3 MAY, 1922 No. 2 
THE WHITE-TAILED DEER OF EASTERN UNITED STATES 
By Thomas Baeboije and Glovee M. Allen 
[Plates 4-5] 
Naturalists and sportsmen long ago remarked the large size of adult 
white-tailed deer of New England as contrasted with the appearance 
of deer from the South Atlantic States. Baird (1857) compared speci- 
mens from New York with those from Virginia and South Carolina, 
pointing out that the latter seemed to average smaller. Following him, 
Dr. J. A. Allen (1871) briefly remarked the same contrast between the 
deer of the northeastern states and those of Florida. Cory (1896) in 
his Hunting and Fishing in Florida devotes a brief chapter to deer, and 
makes the more definite statement that “the Florida Deer is smaller 
and varies slightly in color from the true C. virginianus. A full-grown 
buck will often not weigh over 110 pounds, although I have killed them 
considerably larger, and probably they occasionally (though rarely) 
approach in size their Northern relation. Dr. C. Hart Merriam in 
his Mammals of the Adirondacks (1884, p. 4) says, ‘‘Our deer are much 
larger than those of the South and Southwest, adult well-conditioned 
bucks averaging from 200 to 225 lbs. avoirdupois in weight, and 
exceptionally large ones being much heavier. Hence the Adirondack 
Deer is more than double the size and weight of the same species in 
Florida.’’ In a brief and unsigned review of Cory’s book, Dr. Elliott 
Coues (in The Nation, vol. 62, p. 404, 1896) emphasizes the difference 
in size between the northern representatives of certain species and 
those occurring in Florida, and casually proposes two new names, one 
for the Florida red bat {Atalapha borealis peninsularis) and one for the 
Florida deer (Cariacus fraterculus). Both names are nomina nuda 
and furthermore the two forms in question had been described and 
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JOURNAL OF MAMMALOGY, VOL. 3 , NO. 2 
