105 



the season, desperate battles take place between the males. These 

 conflicts, hov/evei-, do not as often terminate fatally as the strnggles 

 between the males of the smaller species, the broad, blunt horns of the 

 gi'eat elk not being so well adapted to the purpose of inflicting dangerous 

 wounds as the sharp-pointed antlers of the former. 



The woodland cariboii, {Rangifer caribou Aud. and Bach.) or 

 reindeer, inhabits Labrador and northern Canada, and thence may be 

 found south to Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland, the 

 northern pai-t of the State of Ma:ine and Lower Canada^ on both sides of 

 the St. Lawrence ; thence westerly in the country north of Quebec to 

 the rear of Lake Superior. It never migrates towai'ds the north, but 

 makes its migration in a southei-ly direction. 



The following is the description given of this deer by Audubon : 

 " Larger and less graceful than the common American deer, body short and 

 heavy, neck stout, hoofs thin and flattened, broad and spreading, excavated 

 or concave beneath, accessoiy hoofs lai-ge and thin, legs short, no 

 glandular opening, and scai'cely a perceptible inner tuft on the hind legs, 

 nose somewhat like that of a cow, but fully covered with soft hairs of a 

 somewhat moderate length, no beard, but on tlie under side of the neck 

 a line of hairs about four inches in length, hanging down in a longi- 

 tudinal direction, ears small, blunt and oval, thickly covered with hair 

 on both surfaces. Horns one foot three and a half inches in height, 

 slender, one with two and the other with one prong, prongs about five 

 inches long, hair soft and woolly underneath the longer hairs, like those 

 of the antelope, crimped or waved, and about one to one and a half 

 inches long. At the roots the hairs are whitish, then become brownish 

 grey and at the tops are light dun-grey, whiter on the neck than else- 

 where, nose, ears and outer surface of legs brownish, a slight shade of 

 the same tinge behind the forelegs, hoofs black, and throat dull white, a 

 faint whitish ])atch on the side of the shoulders, foiehead a brownish 

 white, tail white vvith a shade of brown at the root and on the 

 whole u])per surface, outside of legs brown, a band of white around all 

 the legs, adjoining the hoofs, and extending to the small secondary hoofs, 

 horns yellowish brown, worn white in places." This description is all 

 very well, and in the main points coiTect. The rather arbitrary 

 dimensions given of the horns are scarcely borne out, or corroborated 



