194 NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL ‘SOCIzEY, 
extended into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. This land connection 
to the north explains the distribution of fauna upon the island, 
especially the absence of moose, which on the north shore of the 
St. Lawrence appear to have never extended east of the Saguenay 
River into Labrador. 
Until recently it was believed that caribou crossed the Straits 
of Belle Isle when they were occasionally frozen over, and that 
the type found on the island was considered to be identical with 
that on the mainland, forming at best no more than a well 
marked local race. It is now known that no such crossings 
occur. Since 1896 they have been recognized as a separate spe- 
cies of Woodland Caribou (Rangifer terraenovae), and until the 
discovery of the Cassiar Mountain Caribou were considered the 
largest and handsomest representatives of the genus. The near- 
est relatives of the R. terraenovae are of course the R. caribou 
of the adjoining mainland. 
Two types of caribou are recognized by the natives of New- 
foundland. The smaller variety inhabiting the southwest portion 
of the island south and west of Grand Pond, where the country 
is timbered with hard wood, is locally known as the “ mountain 
caribou,” and is said not to migrate. The antlers are for the 
most part much smaller than those of the larger and better-known 
animal in the east and north of the island. There is no satisfactory 
explanation of the existence of these two types, but there are 
many similar instances among the various members of the deer 
family. Some moose are short legged and thick bodied, with 
widely palmated antlers, in contrast to others which are taller 
and more rangy. In the Adirondacks a similar contrast is found 
between the ordinary deer and the meadow buck, or swamp deer. 
This swamp deer has a thick body, short legs, and black dorsal 
stripe. Its antlers, which sometimes present the bifurcated prong 
of the closely allied mule deer of the West, have a heavy beam 
and burr thickly studded with small knobs. These variations, 
however, must be confined to individuals, as both forms mingle 
freely, and in fact these special characters appear to be confined 
to the males. In Newfoundland, however, the smaller or moun- 
tain race inhabits a distinct locality. 
The larger variety migrates annually, going north in the 
spring and returning in September, in bands of five to ten, sel- 
dom numbering over twenty-five. These bands are generally led 
