BLACK-TAIL DEER

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 113, 29 May 1937, Page 6

BLACK-TAIL DEER

Sixteen-Pointer at Lock Enver MR. T. WHITTLE'S BAG A particularly flne specimen oi a pixteen-pointer black-tail deer "was recently secured at Lock Enver by Mr. T. ^VMttle, the well-known stalker, of Puketitiri. 0 Unlike the red deer, blaek tail ai'Q comparatively rare in New Zealand. iVery little is- known in New Zealand concerning thia game, wliich. is a native ®£ North America, and Mr. E. J. Herrick, of Hastings, has kindly supplied jtiie following information. According to Mr. G. M. Thomson, black-tail deer were first introduced mtu New Zealand in 1905 when five .were puxchased in North America and liberated by the Tourist Depattment at Tarawera, on the Napier-Taupo road. According to Lydekher's "Deer of 'All Lands" black-tail deer are allied,; fo the mule deer, but they are of inferior size with relatively smaller horns. They are distributed over the Western North America. The winter pellage is speckled tawny brownis'n grey, a distinctive feature being the entirely black-tail tip. In Itowland Ward's recoxds of Big Game (1928), the largest head is said to have a lCngth of outside curve of 31 fnches with a circumference'of seven inehes. Erom tip to tip* it- measured 34J- inches, the widest outside measurement being 44f in-ehes. Mr. Whittle states that recently he heard one xoaring in the Puketitiri district, but before he was able to view il, it disappeared.