192 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



This is the first clear and correct discrimination of the 

 various groups of Caribou found on the North American 

 mainland, and although no fewer than ten species have now 

 been described, I suspect that, in the end, we shall come back 

 very nearly to Sir John Richardson's view. The ten will 

 probably merge into geographical races of four well-marked 

 species, namely: 



(i) The very small gray Barren-ground Caribou (arcticus), 

 with its six races, greenlandicus, pearyt, a'^cticus, 

 granti, dawsoni, and stonei. 



(2) The huge black Mountain Caribou {montanus), with 



its two races, montanus and oshorni. 



(3) The middle-sized gray Woodland Caribou {caribou). 



(4) The White Newfoundland Caribou {terrce-novce). 



ANTLERS To the spottsmau the antlers are the all-important matter. 



Compared with them the creature's size and shape are very 

 secondary. 



Just as the proverbial Red Indian was disgusted to find 

 that he had killed a bald white-man, instead of one with a 

 showy scalp-lock for trophy, so the sportsman would rather 

 kill a 200-pound beast with a fine head than a 400-pounder 

 that had dropped his antlers. 



There is no species of Deer in America of which the females 

 have not occasionally been found with antlers. Among Caribou 

 females it is the rule to wear them. In the herds of Norway I 

 did not see any adult females without them. The females of the 

 Woodland Caribou, however, sometimes are hornless. George 

 Linklater even tells me that about Abitibi only the barren 

 females have horns — that the cows bearing horns never bear 

 young — a statement that requires further confirmation. 



Dr. J. B. Gilpin says:^ "Both sexes have horns, the doe 

 comparatively small." According to various accounts the 

 bull's horns are shed in midwinter, ysually in January, but 

 often in December, if the animal be in exceptional vigour; 



'Mam. Nova Scotia, Proc. & Tr., N. S. Inst. Nat. Sci., Ill, 1872, p. 56. 



