276 BULLETIN NO. VII. 
and in the male is furnished with a heavy mane. The fur is of 
two sorts, the inner being dense and soft while the longer hairs 
are crinkled and pliant. The hide makes a useful leather. 
The color is lighter on the back than on the sides. The antlers 
are worn by both males and females, though those of the 
female are smaller and less palmated. The antlers are more 
spreading than those of the moose, which they most resemble. 
Their form is very irregular, but the slender branches are more 
or less palmated at the end. The feet are very large and the 
hoofs are flattened, and in form similar to those of the ox; the 
dew claws or accessory hoofs are unusually large and are not 
entirely unfunctional. There is said to be some muscular con- 
trol of these remnants of the second and fifth digits, which, 
with their flattened hoofs spread laterally, add considerably to 
the support of the animal as its makes its way across the bogs, 
which are its special habitat. The entire lower leg is applied 
to the ground in such cases, so that the caribou’s foot forms a 
sort of snow shoe. The hoofs are black. Tarsal gland large, 
metatarsal gland wanting, interdigital gland found only in 
hind feet. 
The antlers of the male are from two to three feet long, the 
shaft being subcylindrical, with comparatively restricted 
palms. The brow tines are asymmetrical, one or both descend- 
ing to about the level of the eyes and one usually expanded in 
a vertical plane and digitate. The bez-tine may also descend. 
At the end of the main shaft the palmate part bears a number 
of posterior tines. There is considerable variation, which 
would be useless to describe. The antlers of the female are 
small and little palmate, but bear simply flattened snags. The 
Barren-ground caribou which inhabits the rocky morasses of 
arctic America and is most nearly akin to this species has similar 
antlers, though rather more palmate and proportionally much 
larger. Indeed, the antlers of the woodland caribou are not 
half the size of its cousin’s, though the latter is about half its 
size. 
The antlers of the European reindeer with which our spe- 
cies is sometimes identified, differ chiefly in that those of the 
Kuropean form are less palmated. 'To these differences in the 
antlers we must add the greater size of the American species, 
as well as its lighter color. The caribou lives chiefly upon 
lichens and mosses and the browse of small trees and shrubs. 
The reindeer moss, Cladonia rangiferina, species of Usnea, 
Sticta and Cornicularia are said to constitute the principal sup- 
