184 NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



pre-glacial times^ and that the former entered Europe from the 

 Arctic regions at a much earlier period than the latter. The 

 Woodland Caribou, on the other hand, entered Europe from 

 Siberia, and probably originated in Northeastern Asia, together 

 with much of the fauna common to the Eurasian and North 

 American continents, so that although no Woodland Caribou 

 exists to-day in Europe, and while there is very little evidence of 

 their existence in eastern Siberia, it is probable that they entered 

 North America from the old world over the land connection, 

 which, until recent times, existed across Bering Straits ; and it 

 was by this connection that North America received many of its 

 best known animals — the wapiti, the bison, the mountain sheep, 

 the grizzly and brown bears, the wolverine, and the lynx. 



It may be noted in this connection that the fossil remains give 

 us no good clew to the place of origin of the genus as a wdiole, 

 but there is much negative evidence to indicate that it was in 

 some Arctic land. In fact, all deer are clearly of northern origin. 



The Barren Ground Caribou. 



In contrast to the east Siberian origin of the Woodland Cari- 

 bou, the original centre of distribution of the Barren Ground 

 Caribou appears to have been in the north Atlantic region. Pos- 

 sibly this group entered America by way of Greenland. At 

 present, species of the Barren Ground group are found through- 

 out northern Scandinavia and Lapland, Spitzbergen and Nova 

 Zembla, in suitable localities throughout Siberia, Alaska, the 

 portions of North America east and west of Hudson Bay beyond 

 the limit of tree growth, Greenland and the Arctic lands lying 

 to the north of the American continent. 



The Scandinavian reindeer (Raiigifcr faraiuhis) is of course 

 the earliest and best known, and is the type of the whole genus. 

 The domesticated race is smaller than the wild animals wdiich 

 still persist in the more inaccessible regions of Lapland. This 

 relatively small size of the domesticated in contrast to the wild 

 races also holds good in Siberia. 



To the east of Lapland the reindeer extends throughout 

 northern Russia and Siberia, in places as far south as the 54th 

 parallel, and in the Ural regions as far south as the 52d parallel. 

 Throughout this vast extent of country it is more than probable 



