ORDER ARTIODACTYLA I EVEN-TOED UNGULATES 479 



as far south as the latitude of Gorky, in the vicinity of Smolensk. 

 The animal is now found only in the northernmost part of Russia, 

 where hunting is forbidden. Great reserves have been established 

 in [Russian?] Lapland, with the principal aim of giving protection 

 to the Reindeer. Owing to the natural increase of the stock and to 

 the introduction of specimens from neighboring territories, the 

 number in the herds has doubled during three years (1929-32). 

 (W. G. Heptner, in Hit., December, 1936.) [Does the foregoing- 

 statement concerning recent numbers possibly refer to domesticated 

 Reindeer?] 



[Hilzheimer (1936, p. 156, fig. 1) describes Rangifer tarandus 

 dichotomus from Seitowski Possad, near Orenburg in the southern 

 Ural region. The name is apparently based upon a single Recent 

 antler, without skull or skin, and a fossil antler. In this connection 

 we may recall Flerov's remark (1933, p. 328) : "The deer antlers 

 generally are very variable and give no satisfactory constant char- 

 acters for the classification of small groups." Hilzheimer considers 

 that this Reindeer of southern Russia is now extinct. On zoogeo- 

 graphical grounds one might expect the type locality of dichotomus 

 to be occupied by a Reindeer more or less intermediate between 

 R. t. fennicus Lonnberg and R. t. buskensis (Millais).] 



Spitsbergen Reindeer 



RANGIFER PLATYRHYNCHUS (Vrolik) 



Cervus (Tarandus) platyrhynchus Vrolik, Nieuwe Verhandel. Kron. Nederl. 



Inst., Eerste Klasse, pt. 2, p. 160, 1829. ("Spitzbergen, see Vrolik, 1. c., p. 



239" (Miller, 1912, p. 985).) 



SYNONYM: Cervus tarandus forma spetsbergensis Andersen (1862). 

 FIG.: Wollebaek, 1926, p. 44, fig. 15. 



This Reindeer, which is confined to Spitsbergen, had become very 

 seriously reduced in numbers by 1925, when Norway assumed sov- 

 ereignty over this territory. The protective measures then adopted 

 probably saved the species from extermination, and have enabled 

 it to make a good recovery. 



This is the smallest of the Palearctic Reindeer. In winter the 

 pelage is long, woolly, and whitish; in summer it is dark brown on 

 back and rump, with a mixture of white hairs; antlers similar to 

 those of R. t. tarandus. Height of male at shoulder, 829-940 mm. 

 (Wollebaek, 1926, pp. 46-48.) 



The following account is contributed by Wollebaek (1926, pp. 

 50-53) : 



Up to a short time ago, the reindeer occurred over practically the whole 

 of the ice-free parts of Spitsbergen, and it has undoubtedly been far more 



