SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT. 3 LP GF 
b. American species. 
1. Rangifer groenlandicus, Greenland. 
2. oe pearytl, Ellesmere Land. 
ee os arcticus, Extreme north of America and the Arc- 
tic Islands. 
4. a granti, Alaskan Peninsula. 
5. be Stonet, Cook Inlet. 
6. Undescribed American races. 
II. WOODLAND CARIBOU. 
American species. 
¥. Rangifer terraenovae, Newfoundland. 
2. ce caribou, Canada, Maine, west to Manitoba. 
3 £9 montanus , Rocky Mountains from Idaho to Cen- 
tral British Columbia. 
4. Es osborni, Cassiar Mountains of British Columbia, 
northward. 
5. Undescribed American forms, Alaska and Arctic Canada. 
These types will be considered in detail further on. 
BASIS OF CLASSIFICATION. 
All classification is, in the first instance, a question of defini- 
tion. To-day, nearly all the large North American mammals are 
undergoing a systematic revision. There is a wide divergence 
of opinion as to whether or not certain departures from accepted 
ypes should be recognized as species, or merely as local races. 
The determination of this question naturally depends upon the 
importance attached by different zoologists to the characters upon 
which distinctions are based. 
Most of the distinctions between caribou species are based on 
size, color, and antler development. The writer is perfectly 
aware of the uncertainty of any of these tests. Size alone does 
not often form a sufficient reason for specific distinction. Color, 
especially in an animal subject to seasonal variations, is apt also 
to be an uncertain factor, and the warning of Linneus—ne nimium 
crede colori—has been too often ignored by zoologists. 
Antler development is, if anything, a more variable quantity 
than either of the preceding characters. There is a wide range 
of irregularity in the antlers of all deer, reaching what is perhaps 
