238 
VIRGINIAN DEER. 
because there was no cover to shelter them. In the Southern States, 
however, where there are immense swamps subject to constant inun- 
dations and pine barrens too poor for cultivation, they would remain 
undiminished in numbers were it not for the idle and cruel practice of 
destroying them by firelight, and hunting them in the spring and summer 
seasons by overseers and idlers. There is a law of the State forbidding 
the killing of Deer during certain months in the year. It is, however, 
never enforced; and Deer are exposed for sale in the markets of Charles- 
ton and Savannah at all seasons. In some neighbourhoods, w'here 
they were formerly abundant, now none exist, and the planters have 
given up their hounds. In New-Jersey and Long Island, where the game 
laws are strictly enforced, Deer are said to be on the increase. In 
some parts of Carolina, where the woods are enclosed with fences, not 
sufficiently high to prevent the Deer from straying out, but sufficient to 
prevent the hunters from persecuting them in summer, they have greatly 
multiplied and stocked the surrounding neighbourhoods. If judicious 
laws were framed and strictly enforced the Deer could be preserved for 
ages in all our Southern States, and we cannot refrain from submitting 
this subject to the consideration of our southern legislators. 
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 
This animal is found in the State of Maine ; north of this it is replaced 
by larger species, the moose and reindeer. It exists sparingly in Upper 
Canada. In all the Atlantic States it is still found, although in diminish- 
ed numbers. Where care has been used to prevent its being hunted at 
unseasonable periods of the year, as in New-York and New-Jerscy, it 
is said to be rather on the increase. In the mountainous portions of 
Virginia it is hunted with success. It is still rather common in North 
and South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, especially in barren or sw'ampy 
regions, of which vast tracts remain uncultivated. In Mississippi, Mis- 
souri, Arkansas, and Texas, it supplies many of the less industrious in- 
habitants with a considerable portion of their food. It is very abundant 
in Texas and New Mexico, and is a common species in the northern parts 
of Mexico. We cannot say with confidence that it exists in Oregon, 
and in California it is replaced by the black tailed Deer. — C.Richardsonii. 
GENERAL REMARKS. 
This species has been given under different names, and we might have 
added a long list of synonymes. The specimens we saw in Maine and 
