43 



Attitude of dejection assumed by Caribou stag during the mating season. 



CHAPTER II. 



THE MATING OF THE CARIBOU. 



The life of the Newfoundland Caribou, as already stated, 

 may be divided into four principal periods, of which perhaps 

 the most important, and certainly the most interesting, is 

 the mating season. Unfortunately, this is of such short 

 duration that all efforts to study the animal at that time 

 must be difficult. In fact the question of luck enters into 

 it very largely ; that is, the luck of finding the animals at 

 the time when they are possessed of an extreme restlessness, 

 which causes them to wander in an apparently aimless way. 

 It will be noticed by anyone who attempts to read about 

 Caribou that the writers, whether sportsmen, naturalists or 

 that happy combination of the two, scarcely make any 

 allusion to the breeding or, as it is commonly called, the 

 rutting season ; evidence undoubtedly that the subject is 

 more or less unfamiliar. Yet when one stops a moment to 



