THE GLANDS. 255 



occupying the saiue sub- Arctic region, tlie moose and the Swed- 

 ish elk. 



The specific identity of our Woodland Caribou with the Lap- 

 land Reindeer, C. tamndus, has long been a subject of discussion, 

 if not of controversy, among naturalists ; but I have studied them 

 in vain to find any specific difference between them, and the cor- 

 respondence of this mark, to say the least, harmonizes with this 

 conclusion. In another place, I assign the reasons which incline 

 me to think that there is a specific difference between our north- 

 ern and southern Reindeer, which it is unnecessary to here antici- 

 pate, and if this conclusion be justified, it would follow that the 

 European species could not be the same as our Barren-ground Car- 

 ibou. The Woodland Caribou is undoubtedly larger than either 

 the wild or the tame Reindeer of Europe, but there is said to be 

 a variety of Reindeer in northeastern Asia corresponding in size 

 to our Woodland Caribou. It was the Lapland Reindeer which I 

 personally studied, on all of which the metatarsal gland was 

 entirely wanting, and so I am constrained to conclude that Dr. 

 Gray was in error, when, in his specific description of the same 

 animal, he said : " The external metatarsal gland is above the 

 middle of the leg." However, the same careful and intelligent 

 observer tells us that upon an examination of the reindeer in the 

 British Museum, he thought he could observe the internal tufts, 

 but no trace of the external, the entire hinder edge of the met- 

 atarsus being covered with a uniform very thick coat of hair, 

 thus corresponding with my observations of the same animal and 

 of our Woodland Caribou. I will add that I was unable to de- 

 tect the metatarsal gland or any outside tuft of hair on the 

 mounted specimen of the European Reindeer in the Smithsonian 

 collection, but the difficulty of making sure work with dried 

 specimens always leaves me in doubt as to correct conclusions, and 

 especially on this particular point. I sought long and carefully 

 for this gland on a dried skin of a deer from South America 

 without detecting a trace of it, but after softening the skin with a 

 day's soaking, a very little examination plainly revealed it un- 

 covered with hair, but with the horny scale, as on the Virginia 

 deer or the mule deer. 



On the two specimens of the Barren-ground Caribou I find the 

 same glandular system on the hind leg as on the larger species. 



Our Elk, C. Canadensis, is the only species of North American 

 deer which is without the tarsal gland, and so falls into the first 

 section of Dr. Gray's classification, as elsewhere stated, although 



