ORDER ARTIODACTYLA: EVEN-TOED UNGULATES 483 



Other Eurasian Reindeer 



The remaining forms of wild Reindeer in northern Europe and 

 Asia may be very briefly noticed here. Their numerical status is 

 evidently more satisfactory than that of the forms already dis- 

 cussed. Yet all seem to show an inevitable tendency toward reduc- 

 tion in numbers and restriction of range. There is considerable 

 disagreement among various zoologists as to the taxonomic status 

 of some of these forms, and the following arrangement is merely 

 provisional : 



Rangifer tarandus sibiricus (Schreber) (Saugthiere, vol. 5, pi. 

 248c, 1784; type locality restricted by Hollister (1912, p. 7) to "the 

 Obi, in the neighborhood of the Beresov Mountains"). Range: 

 "Siberian and east European tundra zone; islands of Asiatic Arctic 

 Sea" (Flerov, 1933, p. 336). Tarandus rangifer lenensis Millais 

 (1915, p. 219) and Rangifer arcticus asiaticus Jacobi (1931, p. 85) 

 are perhaps synonyms. 



Rangifer tarandus buskensis (Millais) (The Gun at Home and 

 Abroad, vol. 4, p. 222, 1915; type locality, "the Busk Mountains 

 near Semipalatinsk") . A probable synonym is R. t. valentinae 

 Flerov (1933, p. 336; p. 329, fig. 1; p. 331, fig. 5), whose range is 

 shown as extending through the forested zone of Siberia, from the 

 Urals in the west to the Stanovoi Mountains in the east, and south 

 to the Altai. Hilzheimer (1936, p. 155) apparently overlooks the 

 two foregoing names in proposing R. t. transuralensis for the animal 

 of the Konda River, western Siberia. 



Rangifer tarandus phylarchus Hollister (Smithsonian Misc. Coll., 

 vol. 56, no. 35, p. 6, 1912; type locality, "southeastern Kamchatka"). 

 Range: "Kamchatka, coast of Okhotsk Sea, Amurland" (Flerov, 

 1933, p. 337) . 



Rangifer angustirostris Flerov (Arbeit. Ausschusses Erforschung 

 Naturschatze, Yakutsk ser., no. 4, publ. by Acad. Sci. URSS, p. 8, 

 1932 ; type locality, Bargusin Mountains, northeastern coast of Lake 

 Baikal). Range: "Highlands of Transbaikalia" (Flerov, 1933, 

 p. 337). 



Two additional names (Tarandus rangifer chukchensis Millais 

 (1915, p. 220) and T. r. yakutskensis Millais (1915, p. 222)) 

 were based upon domesticated Reindeer, and so need not be con- 

 sidered here. 



Wild Reindeer (R. t. sibiricus) have long since disappeared from 

 the tundra along the Arctic coast of Russia, including the Kanin 

 Peninsula and Kolguev Island, and likewise from the extensive 

 mainland tundra on the Urals (Jacobi, 1931, pp. 67, 155) . 



W. G. Heptner writes (in litt., December, 1936) that in Siberia 

 Reindeer are quite widely distributed in the taiga zone and very 



