The white-tailed deer, also known as the whitetail or Virginia deer, is a medium-sized deer native to North America, Central America, Ecuador, and South America as far south as Peru and Bolivia. It has also been introduced to New Zealand, Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, the Lesser Antilles, and some countries in Europe, such as the Czech Republic, Finland, Romania, Serbia, Germany, France, and the Virgin Islands.

The scientific name of white-tailed deer is Odocoileus virginianus. There are 38 subspecies in the world. Seventeen of these occur in North America, and one hails from Arizona. v. couesi – Coues' white-tailed deer, Arizona white-tailed deer, or fantail deer.

The deer was named after Elliott Coues, who of all things made his greatest natural contribution to the world of ornithology and was founding member of the American Ornithologists' Union in 1883. Despite his love of birds, he was also very accomplished and published in the world of mammals, leading to this subspecies of White-tailed deer to be named after him.