298 



COMPLEX ANTLERS 



CHAP. 



trampled down, and the animal contents itself with browsing 

 upon the adjacent stems. The well -trampled ground gives an 

 easy footing, and by his powerful horns the great stag is able to 

 keep his enemies at bay. 



FIG. 156. Moose. A Ices machlis. x $. 



Rangifer tarandus, the Eeindeer, is unique among Deer by 

 reason of the fact that both sexes wear antlers. These antlers 

 are palmated. The brow tine and the next or bez tine are also 

 palmated and are directed forwards and a little downwards. The 

 young are unspotted. The pelage alters in winter. Like the 

 Moose, the Eeindeer is circumpolar. As is well known, during the 

 Pleistocene period the Eeindeer extended its range as far as the 

 South of France. Even in the historic period it is said to have 

 been hunted in Caithness. 



Reindeer, like so many other particularly Arctic animals, 

 have regular migrations. In Spitzbergeu, for instance, the animal 

 migrates in the summer to the inland region of the island, and in 



