SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT. 177 



b. American species. 



6. Undescribed American races. 



II. WOODLAND CARIBOU. 



American species. 



1. Rangifer terraenovae, Newfoundland. 



2. " caribou, Canada, Maine, west to Manitoba. 



3. " tnontanus. Rocky Mountains from Idaho to Cen- 



tral British Columbia. 



4. " osborni, Cassiar Mountains of British Columbia, 



northward. 



5. Undescribed American forms, Alaska and Arctic Canada. 



These types will be considered in detail further on. 



BASIS OF CLASSIFICATION. 



All classification is, in the first instance, a question of defini- 

 tion. To-day, nearly all the large North American mammals are 

 undergoing a systematic revision. There is a wide divergence 

 of opinion as to whether or not certain departures from accepted 

 types should be recognized as species, or merely as local races. 

 The determination of this question naturally depends upon the 

 importance attached by different zoologists to the characters upon 

 which distinctions are based. 



]\Iost of the distinctions between caribou species are based on 

 size, color, and antler development. The writer is perfectly 

 aware of the uncertainty of any of these tests. Size alone does 

 not often form a sufficient reason for specific distinction. Color, 

 especially in an animal subject to seasonal variations, is apt also 

 to be an uncertain factor, and the warning of Linneus — nc nimiitm 

 crcde colori — has been too often ignored by zoologists. 



Antler development is, if anything, a more variable quantity 

 than either of the preceding characters. There is a wide range 

 of irregularitv in the antlers of all deer, reaching what is perhaps 



