192 NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



as black as a moose. The antlers of Osborn's caribou are large 

 and sweeping-, and are characterized by large size, often palmation 

 and prongs at the end of the main beam. The posterior prong 

 on the main beam is nearly always very heavy. The brow antlers 

 also are sometimes greatly developed. The range of this animal 

 is probably much the same as that of Stone's mountain sheep, the 

 southern limit in each case being the Rocky Mountain divide 

 separating the head waters of the Peace and Fraser Rivers. On 

 the north this splendid animal probably extends into Alaska and 

 the head waters of the Yukon River. 



Professor J. A. Allen describes the relations of R. inontanus 

 and R. osbonii as follows : 



" Rangifcr inontanns, in late September pelage, may be de- 

 scribed in general terms as a black caribou, with the neck and 

 shoulders, especially in the males, much lighter than the body 

 and limbs ; while R. osborni, in corresponding pelage, is a brown 

 caribou, with much more white on the rump and posterior ventral 

 surface, and the whole neck and shoulders, as well as the back 

 and limbs, much lighter than in R. nioutajius. 



" The specimens of R. montanus are without measurements, 

 but the species is apparently about the same size as R. osborni, 

 as shown by the measurements of the skull. 



" In addition to the marked contrast in color, there are strik- 

 ing differences in the size and form of the antlers in the two 

 forms, the antlers of R. montanus being of the typical Woodland 

 Caribou type, and in their relative shortness and much-branched 

 character recall strongly the antlers of R. tcrracnovac, but they 

 are much lighter and more slender than in that species. They 

 have the same abrupt upward curvature of the main beam, in 

 contrast with the much longer and heavier and more depressed 

 backward-sweeping main beam seen in R. osborni." 



NEWFOUNDLAND CARIBOU. 



Toward the end of the Pleistocene period the Island of New- 

 foundland, extending over the now submerged banks to the south- 

 east, was connected with Labrador over the Straits of Belle Isle, 

 which even now are little more than nine miles wide. Between 

 Newfoundland and Cape Breton and Nova Scotia on the west, 

 the present Straits of Cabot formed part of a deep sea which 



