234 lALTNA AMERICANA. 



minal expansion, rather small, and furnished with 

 a small number of spiculse. 



Neck very short; legs thick; hoofs rounded and 

 very broad ; the small upper hoofs strongly de- 

 veloped ; hair of two kinds, the woolly very abun- 

 dant in winter, the silky like that of the deer, very 

 friable, longer beneath the neck than elsewhere : 

 colour varying according to the seasons, and age 

 of the animal ; the young having the superior parts 

 of the body brown, and the inferior red ; adult of 

 a deep brown in spring, and passing successively 

 to grayish-brown, to grayish-white, and almost en- 

 tirely white during the hottest days of summer ; 

 lower portions of the legs of a deeper colour than 

 the upper, with a narrow white ring above the 

 hoofs. 



Habit. The Rein-deer is the only animal of 

 this genus which has been enslaved by man ; the 

 species, still savage in North America, has been 

 in a great measure tamed in the northern coun- 

 tries of the old continent ; the fawns have protu- 

 berances on the head at birth, and sprouts two 

 inches long at the end of fifteen days. The male 

 adults and sterile females loose their horns in win- 

 ter, and the new ones are not entirely finished 

 until the month of August ; pregnant females re- 

 tain theirs until the month of May ; castrated indi- 

 viduals often retain their horns one year longer 

 than the others, but they change them at the end 

 of this time. In the month of October, during the 



