78 QUADRUPEDS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



2. Cervus tarandus. Lin. The Reindeer. 



Caribou, Charlevoix, Nouv. France, iii., p. 129. 

 Greenland Deer, Catesby. 

 Reindeer, Pennant, Arct. Zool. 

 Cervus tarandus, Harlan, Fauna Am., p. 232. 

 The Reindeer, Godman, Nat. Hist., ii. p. 283. 

 Figure ; Ibid., ii. p. 274, f. 2. 



Specific characters. Dental system ; incisors | ; canines i^i ; 

 molars f^f ; =r 34 ; horns flat, smooth, and possessed by both 

 sexes ; hoofs rounded, broad, and consisting of a single plate fold- 

 ed immediately upon itself, so as to form the anterior and posterior 

 surfaces, without the intervention of any substance between them. 



Description. The general form of the animal is thick and 

 heavy, more so at least than in the common deer, and its legs are 

 proportionally shorter ; horns palmate, rather smooth, or free 

 from those rugosities common to the horns of the fallow deer ; 

 more or less irregular in their mode of branching ; brow antler 

 basal, and standing inwards towards its fellow ; muzzle small, tri- 

 angular ; hoofs rounded before, hollowed out behind, thin, and 

 consisting of a plate of horny matter, which is folded in such a 

 manner, that the posterior portion is in contact with the anterior ; 

 none of that peculiar substance called " the frog of the foot," in- 

 tervenes between the two portions ; color above, brown ; beneath, 

 paler ; chin, lower portion of the neck, and about the hoofs and 

 tail beneath, whitish, or yellowish-white ; a few hairs entirely 

 white are sparsely scattered over the body ; the hair very uniform 

 as it regards length, tapering, brown at the extremity and whitish 

 below, and slightly crisped ; the winter coat very thick, and inter- 

 mixed with brown fur ; there is a palish patch back of the fore 

 legs, and a triangular patch of brown between the fore legs, but 

 all anterior, yellowish-white ; there is also a dark-brown patch 

 adjacent to the terminal white chin. 



Dimensions. 



ft. in. t'ths. 



Length from the nose to the root of the tail, . . . 5 6 



" of tail including the hair, 5 



" from the nose to the base of the ear, . . . 12 



