The map illustrates an interesting fact in Whitetail distribution-while the species has lost much territory in the east and center of its range, it has also gained a great deal in the north and west. The reason for this will be seen in its habits, especially in its adaptability to agricultural conditions.

Had the map been made in 1890 instead of 1900, it would have given a still smaller range; 1890 seems to have been the low-ebb year for much of our wild game east of the Mississippi. Twenty years ago the Deer were exterminated in New England, except in the remote north woods. Now they have repossessed the whole country, even to the gates of New York City. Within the last year wild Deer have been seen about Greenwich, and even in Yonkers.

On the map I have not attempted to show the limits of different races or species of Whitetail now recognized by naturalists. There are some twelve of these, graded from very small in Florida and Mexico to very large in Maine and Manitoba, and from very dark in the Southeast to very pale, with greatly enlarged white areas, in the Northwest.

Bucks of the Florida Deer (O. osceola), rarely weigh over "110 pounds" (Cory), and ordinarily as low as 80 pounds (C. A. Brambly); the does are proportionately less. This represents the Southeastern extreme of size.

In the north we have a very different animal (O. A. borealis).

This is commonly said to attain a maximum weight of 350 pounds, but I find good testimony for much higher weights. Mr. John W. Titcomb, of the Bureau of Fisheries, says that two bucks weighing respectively 370 pounds and 420 pounds were killed in Vermont in 1899.

The most remarkable Adirondack buck that I can find authenticated is described by Mr. James M. Patterson in Colonel Fox's Forestry Report. It was killed by Mr. Henry Ordway in 1890. "Weight before being dressed 388 pounds [bleeding must have robbed it of 8 or 10 pounds, so that its live weight was about 400 pounds], height over withers 4 feet, 3 inches. There are 9 prongs on one antler and 10 on the other. Length of antlers, 32 inches; distance

tip of nose to tip of tail, 9 feet 7 inches." To this Mr. A. N. Cheney adds: “ I have talked with Mr. Patterson, who is a brother of ex-District-Attorney Patterson, of Warren County, since his letter was printed, and he added to the figures given that the Deer measured 37 inches around the neck, back of the head, and that the longest spike on one beam was 13 inches. The buck had been seen on several occasions during two or more years before it was killed, and a number of sportsmen had made special efforts to kill it. It appeared to have no fear of dogs that were put on its track, and on one occasion attacked and drove off two."

But these are the giants of their kind. The average dressed weight of 562 Deer shipped out of the Adirondacks by the Express Company in 1895 was* only 109 pounds—a live weight of 136 poundseach; but this included many small Deer and August specimens of all ages and sexes. An average full-grown buck of the region is about 200 pounds live weight, and the average doe 150 pounds.

The other extreme is found in a Mexican species of which Caton says: "The smallest of the North American Deer which I have studied is the Acapulco Deer. Some of the specimens which I have had weighed only about 30 or 40 pounds."

There is another interesting dwarf, or myth, to be considered. A curious battle has raged for long between two partiesthe hunters in the West and the scientists in the East-over the Gazelle, Cottontail or Fantailed Deer. Every old hunter that I have asked assures me that in the early days of the West there existed a dwarf Whitetail in the thickets along the mountain streams of the upper Missouri.

It resembled the Texan Fantail (0. texensis, Mearns), which is found in the high mountains of the Texas and Mexican country. The scientists deny that any such creature ever existed, excepting in the far Southwest, and pointedly demand the production of hair, hide, skull or footanything, in fact, except a lot of gauzy camp-fire tales.

I could give some interesting extracts from the trappers' stories, but will content myself for the present by stating that all

*According to Colonel Fox's report.

Range of Whitetail in primitive times and in 1900, by Ernest Thompson Seton. The heavy line shows the original range-not fully worked out in Mexico. The tint shows the range in 1900. In the three large white areas, comprising the Atlantic coast, the Middle States and the ar Northwest, the species has been exterminated, but in northern Canada and New England it has followed the settler and gained much territory. OutThe recent extension into Utah is due to irrigation inaking more country possible for the species. No attempt is here made to demark the various species or races. lying or doubtful records are marked with a cross (x). In compiling this map I have used all available data in the records of several hundred ancient and modern travellers.

the old hunters believe in it. They say it looks like a Deer, is a little bigger than a Jack Rabbit, and has the habits of a Cottontail, bounding through the brush and squatting as soon as out of sight; they have shot them and found that adults with five tines on their horns weigh only 50 or 60 pounds and are in all respects a miniature and graceful Whitetailed Deer.

coats each year: a long thick coat, put on in September and worn till May; this is known as the blue coat. And a short rusty coat, appearing in spring as the winter coat is shed, worn all summer, and molted in September; this is known as the red coat.

The protective value of their blended tints and the way in which many animals turn it to account raises the question, Are they

The hunters reply that they wear manytined horns and do not grow bigger; they never were abundant and have disappeared from most localities in the last fifteen or twenty years.

If anyone reading this can forward a skin or skull for examination, he may do good service to science.

Many careful observations have given scientific exactness to the old-established hunter belief that the Deer has two distinct

ings?

Mr. D. Wheeler writes me: "Deer seem to realize their color, they come to the water to drink and commonly pause to reconnoitre among dead brush that matches their coat. I am sure that the Northern hare does so, for in the spring of the year, when they are still in white and when the snow is in patches, they invariably squat or rest on the snow."

Mr. R. Nicholas of Portland, Ore., maintains that "ptarmigan in white always squat on the snow if the ground be bare in

tle thus armed, these antlers form such a complete shield that I have never known a point to reach an adversary." (P. 224.)

But they have an off-setting disadvantage. More in this than in any other American species do we find fatally interlocked antlers. Two bucks struggling for the mastery have in some way sprung their antlers apart, or forced them together, so that they are inextricably intertangled, and death to both combatants is the inevitable finish. It

often comes by starvation, and those antlerbound bucks may think themselves lucky if found by their natural enemies and put to a merciful death.

Mr. Stanley Waterloo writes: "In November, 1895, Mr. F. F. Strong, a wellknown Chicago business man, and an ardent sportsman, was, with a small party of friends, hunting near Indian River, in Schoolcraft

cut the living one free. The moment it felt at liberty it turned its feeble remaining strength on its deliverer and he had much ado to save his own life before he could regain his rifle and lay the ingrate low. I am unable to find the record and give due credit for the story.

Audubon and Bachman tell of three pairs of antlers that were interlocked, and a singular case is reported from Antigo, Wis., where Mr. Matt. J. Wahleitner found two

County, Michigan. One day when the party was out, ravens were noticed hovering noisily over a certain spot, and, attracted by curiosity, the hunters sought the cause. Emerging into a comparatively open space in the wood, they made a discovery. For the space of nearly an acre the ground was torn and furrowed by the hoofs of two bucks, and near the centre of the open space lay the bucks themselves, with their horns inextricably locked. One of the Deer was dead and the hungry ravens had eaten both his eyes, though deterred from further feasting by the occasional spasmodic movements of the surviving combatant, whose eyes were already glazing." (Recreation, Sept., 1897.) I remember reading an account of a hunter finding two bucks thus locked, one dead, the other nearly dead. He was a humane man, so went home for a saw and

pairs of antlers locked together around a five-inch sapling. The photograph shows the horns to be in each case above average size.

An accident of kindred nature is illustrated in the drawing made for the specimen in New York State Museum. It shows the antler of a Deer driven through a tree. (Page 339.)

The feet are much less subject to aberration than the horns, but Dr. E. Coues (Bul. U. S. Geo. Surv.) has

described a solid-hoofed Virginia Deer that was sent him by Mr. Geo. A. Boardman, of Calais, Me. In this freak the two central or main hoofs were consolidated as one. A somewhat similar peculiarity has often been seen in pigs, but never before recorded for the Whitetailed Deer.

The hearing and scent of Deer are marvellously acute, but their eyesight is not of the best.

Audubon and Bachman actually considered it imperfect.

"As we have often, when standing still, perceived the Deer passing within a few yards without observing us, but we have often noticed the affrighted start when we moved our position or when they scented us by the wind. On one occasion we had tied our horse for some time at a stand;