NATURAL HISTORY.— MAMMALS 



225 



They occur in the wooded portions of this region south of 

 the Great Bear Lake. 



Represented in the collection by a fine pair of antlers from 

 the Saskatchewan. 



Rangifer tarandus (/,///;/.). Barren Ground Caribou. 1 



Ek-wo', We-tsi, D. R. Viith-zi, L. No-ti, S. 



The Barren Ground and woodland caribou are the only Amer- 

 ican cervidae which have antlers in both sexes. These are shed 

 so irregularly that some individuals in a herd may be seen 

 with them at any season. The new horn begins to grow late in 

 April. It had just appeared on the heads of the caribou which 

 we killed at the termination of my musk-ox trip. The velvet 

 is not all cleared off until November. The old males are the 

 first to shed their antlers; some of those which I secured late 

 in November would probably have cast them very soon, as they 

 broke away easily in handling the heads. While in the Barren 

 Ground, in March and April, I saw large numbers of both sexes 

 with antlers, and on the fifth of April killed a buck, four or 

 five years of age, still bearing them. One of those collected 

 in November, 1893 (No. 10,802), a male of two years, carried 

 simple spikes, 18 inches in length; 2 inches above the head they 

 are flattened laterally and curved backward. The terminal 

 third curves upward and inward. and is again compressed ob- 

 liquely; the greatest spread is 13 inches. The antlers of No. 

 10,811 have a spread of 3 feet, and are 3 feet 7 inches in length. 

 One brow tine is a spike, the other a plow, Sj4 inches in width. 

 The bez tines resemble a half closed hand. The crown con- 

 tains 4 points on the right and 5 on the left side. Another 

 large male (No 10,808), has antlers fully as long as those of the 

 preceding but with a much heavier beam and with palmated 

 crown tines. 



The Barren Ground caribou is called the reindeer, caribou, 

 or, most commonly, deer, in the North. It is provided in sum- 

 mer with a covering of soft hair, not exceeding an inch in 

 length, of a uniform brown above and a lighter shade on the 

 lower parts. The natives hunt them in August and September 

 for their skins which are then in their best condition for being 



1 See p. 88, ante. 



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