2 ARKIV FÖR ZOOLOGI. BAND 6. NIO 4. 



been mentioned. The fossil and subfossil Reindeer found in 

 different parts of Europé are also excluded. because there 

 is not sufficient material available to the present writer for 

 entering upon this question. It is thus only the recent and 

 still living Reindeer of the European continent which now 

 are going to be discussed. 



For this purpose it must then in the first rank be made 

 out which animal is the type of >>Cervus Tarandiis>> Linn^us 

 1758. Among his quotations af ter the diagnose in Systema 

 Naturce ed. X, p. 67, Linn^us mentions »Fauna Svecica» in 

 the first place, and there in the paragraph quoted is to be 

 read as follows: »Habitat in alpihus Lapponicis plane spon- 

 tanei» ... It is thus evident that the type of Rangifer taran- 

 dus (Lin.) must be the wild Reindeer of the alps of Swe- 

 dish Lapland. This animal is now, I regret to say, extinct 

 in Sweden but at the time of Linn^us and still during the 

 first half of the last century it was fairly numerous in 

 the southern parts of its former area of distribution, that 

 is in Northern Dalecarlia Särna and Idre. In the province 

 mentioned Linn^us had the opportunity himself of seeing 

 and studying the wild Reindeer. Scientific material of this 

 Reindeer is very scarce, and it is uncertain whether any 

 museum except the R. Swedish Natural History Museum in 

 Stockholm posesses any such.^ 



^ Mr. Denis af Wahlberg, Inspector of State-forests in northern- 

 most Dalecarlia has at my request kindly undertaken to gather as much 

 information as now was possible concerning the extermination of the 

 wild Reindeer which formerly lived in the parochial districts Särna and 

 Idre, and he has communicated the following. »About the year 1850 

 (certainly at least 1849) the wild Reindeer occurred» in great flocks» in 

 the neighbourhood of Idre. They came down then into the forests [pro- 

 bably during the winter] quite near to Idre church-village and were 

 eagerly hunted there. By the moving in of new settlers and even Laps 

 the shy Reindeer were driven away to the least accessible placea and 

 they grew more and more scarce within the Swedish boundaries. I know 

 with certainty that residents shot wild Reindeer in the year 1860. Paul 

 Strand, a forest-keeper in State-service, who is an absolutely reliable man, 

 says that he the year mentioned shot a wild Reindeer on Långfjället, or 

 more exactly on Storvätteshogna, which is one of the peaks of Långfjäl- 

 let and the highest (1265 ra.) and perhaps the least accessible mountain 

 in Dalecarlia. I have also been told that in the year 1864 or 1865 a sett- 

 ler Jakob Persson should have shot 4 Reindeer on a wide moor named 

 »Flåa;> and situated to the east of Herjehogna. It is, however, doubtful 

 whether these may not have been runaways from a herd of tame Reindeer. 

 The Laps have, however, captured wild Reindeer at a låter period. It 

 has then been stags which during the rutting season have come roaming 

 and mixed with the tame flocks. These late stragglers may have come 

 from Xorway.» 



