272 



The Living Animals of the World 



antlers, as may be seen by the illustration, differ materially from those of the red deer, elk, 

 and other species ; the brow-tines, especially, are often much palmated. These animals are 

 heavily built, short-legged, and, as beseems dwellers in a snowy habitat, provided with round, 

 short, and spreading hoofs. For ages reindeer have been domesticated by the Lapps of 

 Scandinavia, the Samoyeds, and other primitive races of Northern Europe and Asia. Trained 

 to harness, and drawing a sledge, they traverse long distances, while their milk, flesh, and 



hides are of great 

 importance to the 

 people who keep 

 them. The COMMON 

 or SCANDINAVIAN 

 REINDEER ranges 

 from Norway through 

 Northern Europe 

 into Asia, though 

 how far eastward is 

 not yet accurately 

 determined. It is 

 interesting to note 

 that these animals 

 were once denizens 

 of Britain, and so 

 lately as the twelfth 

 century the Jarls of 

 Orkney are believed 

 to have been in the 

 habit of crossing to 

 the mainland for the 

 purpose of hunting 

 them in the wilds of 

 Caithness. Wild 

 reindeer are still to 

 be found in the 

 remoter parts of 

 Norway, though, 

 from much persecution, they are becoming comparatively scarce in most parts of the country. 



Mr. Abel Chapman, in his " Wild Norway," gives some excellent accounts of sport with 

 these fine deer. Speaking of a good herd of twenty-one, discovered in Ryfylke, he says : 

 "Most of the deer were lying down, but both the big stags stood upright in dreamy, inert 

 postures. ... I now fully realised what a truly magnificent animal I had before me. Both in 

 body and horn he was a giant, and his coat was no less remarkable ; the neck was pure white, 

 and beneath it a shaggy mane hung down a foot in length. This white neck was set off by 

 the dark head in front and the rich glossy brown of his robe behind. Besides this the 

 contrasting black and white bars on flanks and stern were conspicuously clean-cut and defined, 

 and the long and massive antlers showed a splendid recurved sweep, surmounted by branch-like 

 tines, all clean." For three long, agonising hours the stalker watched this noble prize, and then 

 one of those lucky chances which occasionally gladden the hunter's heart occurred, and the 

 reindeer approached within a hundred yards. "Half-a-dozen forward steps, and his white neck 

 and dark shoulder were beautifully exposed. Already, ere his head had appeared, the rifle had 

 been shifted over, and now the foresight dwelt lovingly on a thrice-refined aim. The '450 bullet 

 struck to an inch, just where the shaggy mane joined the brown shoulder. The beast winced 

 all over, but neither moved nor fell. A moment's survey, and I knew by the swaying of his 



By permission of the New York Zoological Society. 



WOODLAND CARIBOU. 

 This specimen has shed its horns, which are of the general type of those of the Scandinavian race. 



