BARREN GROUND CARIBOU. 



Rangifer grcenla7idicHs. — Baird. 



OF the Barren Ground Caribou but little is known beyond 

 what is contained in the very interesting account given of 

 this animal by Sir John Richardson in his Fauna Boreali Ameri- 

 cana (London, 1829, Mammalia, p. 241). Although the two Ameri- 

 can species of the genus have been separated by high authorities, 

 the distinctions between them are not well defined, and would seem 

 to be of doubtful specific value. The chief differences mentioned 

 by the various writers who have discussed this matter, are, the 

 smaller size of the northern form, R. grceiilatidzcus, and its pro- 

 protionately larger horns. The following note by Mr. R. Morrow, 

 published in 1876, is of interest as bearing somewhat on the ques- 

 tion of their identity : — 



" Our Caribou (woodland var.) has a peculiar liver, rather small, 

 ovate, long diameter nine inches, short diameter six inches, (from 

 an animal supposed to be about eighteen months old,) situated on 

 the right side, long diameter nearly parallel with the back bone, 

 divided almost in the centre by a shallow sulcus, and having a 

 protuberance, or small, somewhat conical lobe, which the butcher 

 calls a button, upon the upper part of the concave side, with a 

 broad base, and another very small one like a flat teat, not inva- 

 riably present however, in the same line as the large one, one 

 and a half inches below it, in size about half an inch long, three- 

 eighths of an inch wide, and about one-eighth of an inch thick ; 

 and it has no gall bladder. It is more than probable that this 

 form of liver and absence of the gall bladder is common to the 

 deer tribe : Goldsmith says ' all the deer tribe want the gall 

 bladder.' 



" I have never seen a Barren Ground Caribou, nor any descrip- 

 tion of the animal giving the peculiarity in the form of the liver of 



