Raymond Holmes, age 9, of Helena, Mont., for his question:

WHAT DO DEER EAT?

Dear eat grass, leaves, bark, twigs and the tender sprouts of trees and other plants. They also eat moss and plants called lichens.

Some kinds of deer like particular foods. Chital, the graceful deer of Asia, eats blossoms and fruits that fall from forest trees. White tailed deer eat various plants, including mushrooms and other types of fungi.

Moose and swamp deer search streams and swamps for water plants. Caribou and reindeer like reindeer moss, a kind of lichen.

Deer do not chew their food well before swallowing it. A deer's stomach has four sections. One section serves as a storage place for the poorly chewed food. Food stored here is later returned to the mouth in a ball like glob. The deer then chews this food, called cud.

After the chewed food has been swallowed for a second time, it goes to other parts of the stomach. Animals that digest their food in this way are called ruminants.

There are more than 60 kinds of deer. They live in North America, Central and South America and Asia and Europe. Deer have also been brought into places where they did not live naturally, including Australia, Hawaii, New Guinea and New Zealand.

The best known deer of North America include white tailed deer, mule deer, caribou, elk and mouse.

White tailed deer, also called Virginia deer, are the most common large game animals in North America. A white tailed deer may stand three and a half feet tall and weigh 200 pounds.

The deer's tail, for which it is named, grows about one foot long. The tail has brown hair on top and white hair underneath. When the deer is frightened and begins to run, its tail stands straight up, showing the white part. This deer has a reddish brown coat in summer and a gray or bluish gray in winter.

Mule deer are much like white tailed deer. They are named for their large, furry ears, which look somewhat like those of a mule. Leather manufacturers make buckskin from the hides of mule and white tailed deer.

Caribou are the reindeer of North America. Unlike all other deer except reindeer, both males nd femals have antlers. Caribou grow about four feet high and vary in color from white to brown.

Arctic Eskimos and Indians eat caribou meat, carve the bones into utensils and make the hide into clothing and tents.

Elk, also called wapiti, were once widely hunted for their teeth and for their antlers, which people used for ornaments. These deer stand about five feet tall and their antlers may spread about five feet wide.

Elk are the second largest deer in the world. Only moose are larger.

Moose are the largest of all deer with some males standing seven and a half feet tall,