54 VERTEBRATES I MAMMALS. 



and northward to the frozen regions. It frequents wooded 

 hillsides in winter, and the borders of lakes in summer. 

 Moose are hunted for their flesh, which is excellent. 

 They sometimes turn against the hunters before being 

 wounded or even shot at. Their usual mode of defence 

 consists in striking with their fore feet. 



The Elk of the North of Europe is so nearly like our 

 moose, that the two have been regarded by most authors 

 as one species. 



The Great Irish Elk, Megaceros hibernicus, Owen, ten 

 feet high to the top of the horns, whose tips are ten feet 

 apart, is an extinct species found in marl at the bottom 

 of the peat bogs of Ireland. 



The Genus Rangifer Reindeer has the horns 

 broadly palmated at the tip, and present in both sexes ; 

 the nose wholly hairy, and the hoofs suboval and dilated. 



The Reindeer, R. tarandus, Linn., of Northern Eu- 

 rope, is about four feet and a half long and three feet 

 high, and is celebrated for the services it renders to the 

 Laplanders, who possess large herds of them, and use 

 them as beasts of burden and for draught, their milk and 

 flesh for food, and their skins for clothing and covering 

 for sledges. The reindeer is very hardy, and draws the 

 sledge of its owner with great speed. In summer it feeds 

 upon the tender portions of shrubs, but in winter it scrapes 

 the snow from the ground, and feeds upon the so-called 

 reindeer-moss. The hair is brown in summer, white in 

 winter. 



The Woodland Caribou or Reindeer, R. caribou, Aud. 

 & Bach., of Maine and New Brunswick and westward to 

 Lake Superior, is believed by some to be identical with 

 the European species. 



The Barren Ground Caribou, R. groenlandictis, Baird, 

 is found in the Arctic regions of America and Green- 

 land, beyond the limit of trees. 



