The two styles of antler which we recognize in the North American deer
are too well known to require description. That characterizing the mule
deer (_Mazama hemionus_) and the Columbia black-tailed deer
(_M. columbiana_), seems never to have occurred in the east, nor
south much beyond the Mexican border, and these deer have varied little
except in size, although three subspecies have lately been set off from
the mule deer in the extreme southwest.

The section represented by _M. virginiana,_ with antlers curving
forward and tines projecting from its hinder border, takes practically
the whole of America in its range, and under the law of variation which
has been stated, has proved a veritable gold mine to the makers of
names. At present it is utterly useless to attempt to determine which of
the forms described will stand the scrutiny of the future, and no more
will be attempted here than to state the present gross contents of
cervine literature. The sub-genus _Dorcelaphus_ contains all the
forms of the United States; of these, the deer belonging east of the
Missouri River, those from the great plains to the Pacific, those along
the Rio Grande in Texas and Mexico, those of Florida, and those again of
Sonora, are each rated as sub-species of _virginiana_; to which we
must add six more, ranging from Mexico to Bolivia. One full species,
_M. truei,_ has been described from Central America, and another
rather anomalous creature (_M. crookii_), resembling both
white-tail and mule deer, from New Mexico.

The other sub-genera are _Blastoceros,_ with branched antlers and
no metatarsal gland; _Xenelaphus,_ smaller in size, with small,
simply forked antlers and no metatarsal gland; _Mazama_, containing
the so-called brockets, very small, with minute spike antlers, lacking
the metatarsal and sometimes the tarsal gland as well. The last three