THE AMERICAN REINDEER. ' 131 



ties from lichens, and especially from the reindeer moss 

 (identical in Europe with that of America), is interesting 

 and readily suggests the value of this primitive vegeta- 

 tion in supporting animal life in a Boreal climate as a 

 heat-producing food. Besides the above, which appears 

 to be its staple food, the cariboo partakes of the tripe de 

 rocJie (Sticla pulmonaria) and other parasitic lichens 

 growing on the bark of trees, and is exceedingly fond 

 of the Usnea, which grows on the boughs (especially 

 affecting the top) of the black spruce, in long, pendant 

 hanks. In the forests on the Cumberland Hills, in Nova 

 Scotia, I have observed the snow quite trodden down 

 during the night by the cariboo, which had resorted to 

 feed on the " old man s beards " in the tops of the spruces 

 felled by the lumberers on the day previous. In the 

 same locality I have observed such frequent scratchings 

 in the first light snow of the season at the foot of the 

 trees in beech groves, that I am convinced that the 

 animal, like the bear, is partial to the rich food afforded 

 by the mast. 



I am not aware that a favourite item of the diet of the 

 Norwegian reindeer — Eanunculus glacialis — is found in 

 America, and the woodland cariboo has no chance of ex- 

 hibiting the strange but well-authenticated taste of the 

 former animal by devouring the lemming ; otherwise the 

 habits of the two varieties are perfectly similar as regards 

 food. 



The woodland cariboo, like the Laplander s reindeer, 

 is essentially a migratory animal. There are two well- 

 defined periods of migration — in the spring and autumn — 

 whilst throughout the winter it appears constantly seized 

 with an unconquerable desire to change its residence. 



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