19-t NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



extended into the Cnilf of St. Lawrence. This land connection 

 to the north explains the distrihution of fauna upon the island, 

 especially the absence of moose, which on the north shore of the 

 St. Lawrence appear to have never extended east of the Saguenay 

 River into Labrador. 



Until recently it was believed that caribou crossed the Straits 

 of Belle Isle when they were occasionally frozen over, and that 

 the type found on the island was considered to be identical with 

 that on the mainland, forming at best no more than a well 

 marked local race. It is now known that no such crossings 

 occur. Since 1896 they have been recognized as a separate spe- 

 cies of Woodland Caribou (Rangifer tcrracnovae), and until the 

 discovery of the Cassiar Mountain Caribou were considered the 

 largest and handsomest representatives of the genus. The near- 

 est relatives of the R. tcrracnovae are of course the R. carihon 

 of the adjoining mainland. 



Two types of caribou are recognized by the natives of New- 

 foundland. The smaller variety inhabiting the southwest portion 

 of the island south and west of Grand Pond, where the country 

 is timbered with hard wood, is locally known as the " mountain 

 caribou," and is said not to migrate. The antlers are for the 

 most part much smaller than those of the larger and better-known 

 animal in the east and north of the island. There is no satisfactory 

 explanation of the existence of these two types, but there are 

 many similar instances among the various members of the deer 

 family. Some moose are short legged and thick bodied, with 

 widely palmated antlers, in contrast to others which are taller 

 and more rangy. In the Adirondacks a similar contrast is found 

 between the ordinary deer and the meadow buck, or swamp deer. 

 This swamp deer has a thick body, short legs, and black dorsal 

 stripe. Its antlers, which sometimes present the bifurcated prong 

 of the closely allied mule deer of the West, have a heavy beam 

 and burr thickly studded with small knobs. These variations, 

 however, must be confined to _individuals, as both forms mingle 

 freely, and in fact these special characters appear to be confined 

 to the males. In Newfoundland, however, the smaller or moun- 

 tain race inhabits a distinct locality. 



The larger variety migrates annually, going north in the 

 spring and returning in September, in bands of five to ten, sel- 

 dom numbering over twenty-five. These bands are generally led 



