ne 28 BANGS — LABRADOR MAMMALS Ey 
1899 
performed semi-annually upon its native island, which is sufficient 
unto it, and which it never leaves. A moment’s thought shows 
how absurd such a theory is. No caribou is going to attempt to 
swim the broad, deep straits of Belle Isle, for the sake of crossing 
to an unknown land occupied by a different species, and in 
winter — when, on rare occasions, caribou might cross on the 
ice—they are all two hundred miles away and more, in the 
southern and eastern parts of the island. It is perhaps equally 
astonishing to American mammalogists to find Lydekker giving 
our woodland caribou, as distinct a species as ever existed, as a 
subspecies of the Old World Rangifer tarandus. 
Putorius (Lutreola) vison vison (Schreber). 
Four females—two old, two young. These are the first 
Labrador mink I have seen. They agree very well with speci- 
mens from Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Maine, and 
belong to the small, dark-colored northern form, true vsox. This 
form is characterized also by small, lightly built skull, without 
marked sagittal crest and with weak dentition. ‘They measure 
as follows (in millimeters). 
No. Sex and Date Total Tail Flind 
age length vertebre foot 
7978 2 old Sept. 17, ’98 470 145 54 
7976 Q old Sept. 30, ’98 490 160 56 
7979 2 yg. Oct. 7, ’98 458 141 54 
7977 2 yg. Sept. 30, ’98 450 134 51 
That such an aquatic animal as the mink should be common on 
the Labrador coast directly opposite Newfoundland, and yet 
never occur upon that island, is only another excellent proof of 
the complete isolation of the Newfoundland mammalian fauna. 
In June, 1898, Mr. Doane went to Flower’s Cove, Newfound- 
land, for the express purpose of ascertaining if the mink occurred 
in northwestern Newfoundland. He found that it is unknown 
there. 
