66 
JOURNAL OF MAMMALOGY 
named shortly before, the bat by Rhoads, the deer in a preliminary 
paper by Mr. Outram Bangs (1896) who at that time was energetically 
investigating the mammalian fauna of Florida preparatory to the 
publication (in 1898) of his summary of the species known from the 
state. In naming the Florida deer Cariacus osceola^he unfortunately 
lacked specimens of typical virginianus for comparison, but contrasted 
the deer of northern Florida with the large deer of Maine which at 
that time was believed identical with typical virginianus, but was later 
named by Miller (1900) as a distinct race, borealis (type from Bucks- 
port, Maine). 
Although it was originally thought that the Florida deer differed so 
markedly from typical virginianus as to constitute even a distinct 
species, the gradual accumulation of additional facts and specimens 
in the intervening years has shown that the supposed sharp distinctions 
were after all of only relative value, until it became finally a question 
whether or not the deer of Florida were really distinct from true 
virginianus with which as yet it had not been carefully compared. 
With these facts in mind one of us (Barbour) has spent no little time 
and effort during the course of several visits to Florida, in gathering 
notes and material, particularly skulls, that might throw light .on the 
relationships of the white-tailed deer of the peninsula. Such great 
changes are now taking place in the way of clearing large areas of 
woodland, building railroads, and constructing drainage canals in 
Florida that the distribution and abundance of so large an animal as 
the white-tailed deer cannot but be changed very considerably within a 
few decades. The importance of obtaining adequate material to 
illustrate its present distribution is, therefore, obvious. 
In the course of our work it at once became clear that an adequate 
idea of the characters of typical virginianus was essential, and this 
made necessarj^ a re-examination of the status of the northern race 
borealis. Of Florida specimens, in addition to three of the original 
four representing Bangs's osceola, the Museum of Comparative Zoology 
now has a series of skulls from Cumberland Island, Georgia, a series 
from the vicinity of Palm Beach, Florida, and a third lot from Choko- 
loskee in extreme southwestern Florida/ as well as a few from other 
localities in northern Florida and three others from Big Pine Key, 
some 130 miles south of Miami. Years ago by permission of the 
New York authorities Barbour was able to obtain specimens in summer 
coat from the Adirondacks, which with the type and other specimens 
in the Museum of Comparative Zo5logy fairly represent the northern 
race borealis. 
