254 THE DEER OF AMERICA^. 



end, where the elevation is greatest. The length of this tuft is 

 two inches, while the bi-eadth is one inch and three lines. The 

 middle of this tnft is a yellowish white, for a horizontal extent of 

 two inches, and a vertical extent of one inch and three lines. 

 The greatest diameter of the white portion is near the lower 

 border of the tuft. Below the white portion the tuft shades 

 down to the olive brown of the rest of the leg. It occupies the 

 internal cavity of the hock posterior to the central part. It is 

 not quite so large in proportion to the size of the animal as on 

 most of the other species, neither is it much below them in rela- 

 tive size. It is not so exactly alike on each individual of this 

 species as it is on the smaller species. 



A careful examination of his congener, the European Reindeer, 

 shows that they correspond in the glandular system on the hind 

 leg as well as in other respects. The illustrations show the tufts 

 of hair on the inside of the hocks of both varieties of this deer. 

 It will be seen that they correspond both in location, form, and 

 extent. Those from the male and female wild European Rein- 

 deer, were drawn from a pair I obtained from Tromso, within the 

 arctic circle on the west coast of Norway. It will be observed 

 that they do not correspond exactly with each other or with that 

 on the Caribou. Those on the female reindeer and the Caribou 

 being more alike than those on the male and female Reindeer. 

 They vary a little in size, that on the female being the largest as 

 well as most irregular at the lower part of the tuft. Altogether 

 the difference is more marked than is to be found among individ- 

 uals of any of the other species, and to that extent it impairs the 

 reliability to be placed upon this tuft as a distinguishing mark, 

 and yet they are quite unlike those found on any of the other 

 species. After all they have distinct characteristics which tell 

 us their orisrin at once. I studied several hundred tame Reindeer 

 in Lapland, and observed that those general characteristics pre- 

 vailed, while the difference in size and form here represented 

 was observed among them. 



This tuft of hair on the inside of the hock is present on the 

 Barren-ground Caribou, and the specimen in my collection is 

 much more circular in form, wanting the long, sharp point at the 

 upper end which is so observable on the Woodland Caribou. 



On both species of our Caribou, as well as on the European 

 Reindeer, the most careful scrutiny fails to disclose the least ves- 

 tige of a gland or tuft of hairs on the outer side of the meta- 

 tarsus, and in this respect it corresponds with its neighbor, 



