122 NEWFOUNDLAND CARIBOU 



development. If we take the American quail [Co/i?2us 

 virgi7iia?ius) from Massachusetts, practically its northern 

 limit, and compare it with one from Florida, we would 

 see that there is a marked difference between the two. 

 Then let us take a bird from every hundred miles of the 

 intervening distance, and lay them in a row. All the 

 intergradations would be there, showing the bird to be 

 the same, with coloration varied by habitat. But if we 

 examine the cheewink (Tipi/o ejyt/i7'opt/ia/mus) of the 

 north, and compare it with the southern variety from 

 Florida, we would find that, besides the slight modifi- 

 cation in feather colours, the eye is red instead of very 

 dark brown or black, and that their distinction is abrupt 

 and constant. We are therefore forced to the conclusion 

 that it is an entirely different bird, deserving a separate 

 name. 



Now, with the Caribou, from about four species a 

 comparatively few years ago we have to-day, perhaps, 

 fifteen more or less distinct forms, which are called 

 species, and which are broadly divided into two classes, 

 called the Barren Ground and Woodland. Why 

 this particular classification should be made is rather a 

 mystery to anyone who has studied the Caribou, for if a 

 name should mean anything descriptive of the animal's 

 habits, we would naturally expect the two forms to live 

 according to their names, whereas they by no means always 

 do so. Let us take the Newfoundland Caribou, which 

 is classed among the woodland species. It spends fully 

 as much, if not more, of its life in the open barren as it 

 does in the forests, and I believe the same to be true of 

 those found in Labrador. I expect the only true barren 

 land species, so far as habitat is concerned, are those 

 which live in the treeless country of the far north. It is 



