LONG-TAILED DEER. 
7G 
blance it lias in size, form, and habits, to the Cervus capreolus of Europe, 
has obtained the name of Chevreuil from the French Canadians, and of 
Roebuck from the Scottish Highlanders employed by the Hudson’s Bay 
Company. These names occur in the works of several authors who have 
written on the fur countries, and Umfreville gives a brief, but, as far as 
it goes, a correct description of it.” “ This species does not, on the east 
side of the Rocky Mountains, range farther north than latitude 54°, nor is 
it found in that parallel to the eastward of the 105th degree of longitude.” 
Mr. Douglas speaks of it as “the most common deer of any in the 
districts adjoining the river Columbia, more especially in the fertile 
prairies of the Cowalidske and Multnomah rivers, within one hundred 
miles of the Pacific Ocean. It is also occasionally met with near the base 
of the Rocky Mountains on the same side of that ridge. Its favourite 
haunts are the coppices, composed of Corylus, Rubus, Rosa, and Amelanchir, 
on the declivities of the low hills or dry undulating grounds. Its gait is 
two ambling steps and a bound exceeding double the distance of the steps, 
which mode it does not depart from even when closely pursued. In run- 
ning, the tail is erect, wagging from side to side, and from its unusual 
length is the most remarkable feature about the animal. The voice of the 
male calling the female is like the sound produced by blowing in the muzzle 
of a gun or in a hollow cane. The voice of the female calling the young 
is race, mce, pronounced shortly. This is well imitated by the native tribes, 
with a stem of Heracleum lanatum, cut at a joint, leaving six inches of a 
tube : with this, aided by a head and horns of a full grown buck, which 
the hunter carries with him as a decoy, and which he moves backwards 
and forwards among the long grass, alternately feigning the voice with the 
tube, the unsuspecting animal is attracted within a few yards in the hope 
of finding its partner, when instantly springing up, the hunter plants an 
arrow in his object. The flesh is excellent when in good order, and 
remarkably tender and well flavoured.” “ They go in herds from November 
to April and May, when the female secretes herself to bring forth. The 
young are spotted with white until the middle of the first winter, when 
they change to the same colour as the most aged.” 
Lewis and Clark considered it the same animal as the common deer, 
with the exception of the length of the tail. They found it inhabiting 
“the Rocky Mountains, in the neighbourhood of the Chopunnish, and 
about the Columbia, and down the river as low as where the tide-water 
commences.” These travellers in another passage observe that “ the com- 
mon Fallow Deer with long tails (our present species), though very poor, 
are better than the black-tailed fallow deer of the coast, from which they 
differ materially.” 
