July, 1901. The Caribou of Kenai Pen'sula, Alaska. — Elliot. 61 



also from the antlers of Dr. Allen's type. Failing then to distinguish 

 the Kenai Peninsula caribou as a distinct form by any of the 

 characters mentioned by Dr. Allen, apparently nothing remains but 

 the color, and the unusually dark under parts, and as the skin of the 

 cow does not resemble that of the bull, having both a white belly and 

 caudal patch, we are forced to regard the coloration either as a sexual 

 distinction, or of no consequence. But in order to determine this 

 satisfactorily a considerable number of both sexes will have to be 

 obtained. 



Some two years ago, I saw in Seattle a mounted specimen of a bull 

 caribou also from the Kenai Peninsula, and my recollection of it is, 

 a dark animal with horns different again from any here shown, but 

 my memory fails to recall whether or not there was any white on the 

 belly. The caribou of the Kenai Peninsula, evidently like those from 

 other parts of the continent, exhibit a great variety and shape of 

 horns, and it may be doubted if a style can be established so radically 

 different from its very close allies, R. montanus, and R. dawsoni, as to 

 be able to maintain itself as a separate form, or whether indeed the 

 above named animals in a large series of specimens, could present 

 evidences of such a distinct character that would demonstrate for 

 themselves anything more than a racial difference, and perhaps not 

 even that. Among the known caribou of North America there 

 appear to be three distinct styles of horns. The antlers of the Arctic, 

 or Barren Ground animals and those from Newfoundland are widely 

 different, and these again do not closely resemble those of the 

 Canadian and western animals, the principal difference, however, 

 between antlers of the Newfoundland and Canadian specimens 

 being the much heavier character of the former. But between 

 the antlers of the caribou from the eastern and western portions 

 of the continent, from Nova Scotia westward, there is not the same 

 difference, and a reasonable doubt arises in the mind (the im- 

 mense individual variation in the form and size of the antlers being 

 known and acknowledged) whether too much stress has not been 

 placed upon variable and insufficient characters, and the number of 

 species of caribou in North America thereby unwarrantably in- 

 creased. The three styles of antlers from the Kenai Peninsula shown 

 on the plates accompanying this paper differ greatly, the two belong- 

 ing to Mr. Lee agreeing better in some particulars with each other 

 than either do with Dr. Allen's specimen, and while the "anterior 

 branch " is well developed in both, in neither of them does it 

 resemble that of the example called R. stonei, and the main beam has 

 altogether a very different shape, so that if antlers alone were a sufn- 



