American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth
Edition - n. A brownish-gray deer (Odocoileus hemionus) of
western North America, having long mulelike ears, large
branching antlers in the male, and a black-tipped tail. Also
called black-tailed deer. Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia - n.
The blacktail or black-tailed deer, Cariacus macrotis: so called
from the large ears. It is decidedly larger and more stately
than the Virginia or white-tailed deer, and is next in size to
the wapiti and caribou among the North American Cervidœ. The
tail is very short and slim, and mostly white, but with a black
brush at the end. The antlers are characteristic, being doubly
dichotomous — that is, the beam forks, and each tine forks
again; whereas in C. virginianusthe beam is curved and all the
tines spring from it. The animal is the commonest deer in many
wooded and mountainous parts of western North America, but is
not found east of the great plains. GNU Webster's 1913 - n.
(Zoöl.) a large deer (Cervus macrotis