THE AMERICAN REINDEER. 127 



Scotia or New Brunswick, as I have seen them, grace- 

 fully trotting over the plains on light snow, and in Indian 

 file, or, when alarmed, circling round the hunter with 

 neck and head braced up and scut erect, stepping with 

 an astonishing elasticity and spring, is a noble creature 

 in comparison with the specimens of the reindeer of 

 Northern Europe that have appeared in the Society's 

 gardens at Regent's Park : they are, nevertheless, in- 

 dubitably the same species and simply local varia- 

 tions. 



The colour of the American cariboo, as described by 

 Audubon and Bachman, is as follows : — 



" Tips of hairs light dun gray, whiter on the neck than 

 elsewhere ; nose, ears, outer surface of legs and shoulders 

 brownish. Neck and throat dull white ; a faint whitish 

 patch on the side of shoulders. Belly and tail white ; a 

 band of white around all the legs adjoining the hoofs." 

 From this general description there is, however, consider- 

 able variation. Bucks in their prime are often of a rich, 

 rufous-brown hue on the back and legs, having the neck 

 and pendant mane, tail and rump, snow-white. A patch 

 of dark hair, nearly black, appears on the side of the 

 muzzle and cheek. As the hair grows in length, towards 

 the approach of winter, it lightens considerably in hue : 

 individuals may frequently be seen in a herd with coats 

 of the palest fawn colour, almost white. Young deer are 

 dappled on the side and flank with light sandy spots. 

 The white mane, reaching to over a foot in length in old 

 males, which hangs pendant from the neck with a graceful 



one of the handsomest of animals ; for when one sees a Timguze sit, with 

 the proudest deportment, on his reindeer, they both seem made for each 

 other, and it is hard to decide whether the reindeer lends grace to the rider 

 or borrows it from him." — Travels in Siberia, by Adolph Erman. 



