NORTH AMERICA AND THE WEST INDIES 305 



groups of up to a dozen individuals of both sexes, and penetrate 

 as far as latitude 83 N. on the northern coasts of these areas. 

 They are not known to show any distinct mass migrations but 

 remain the year round thriving on the lichen, moss, and other 

 dwarf and scanty Arctic vegetation. Their chief enemies are 

 the Arctic wolf and, of course, man, particularly the native 

 Eskimo, who hunts them for food and clothing. "In these 

 northern wilds, amid the most intense cold, the caribou passes 

 from three to five months of continuous night, its wanderings 

 lighted only by the moon, stars, and the marvelous displays of 

 waving northern lights" (Nelson, 1916). According to Ander- 

 son these caribou are not very numerous, although Sverdrup 

 found them in abundance on the west coast of Ellesmere 

 Land. Since there are rather few human inhabitants it is 

 likely that the caribou will persist for a long time to come. 



GREENLAND CARIBOU 

 RANGIFER ARCTICUS GROENLANDICUS (Gmelin) 



[Cervus tarandus] groenlandicus Gmelin, Linnaeus's Systema Naturae, ed. 13, vol. 1, 



pt. 1, p. 177, 1788 (Greenland). 

 FIGS.: Grant, 1902, two unnumbered plates (4, 5) (skull with antlers). 



Lydekker (1915) describes the Greenland caribou as "closely 

 allied to R. t. arcticus, with a broad sharply defined white ring 

 round each eye, and distinct broad white bands above the 

 hoofs; skull with an elevated frontal region." Whether or 

 not these color characters are really distinctive, J. A. Allen 

 (1908) states that it is darker in color than typical arcticus 

 and much darker than pearyi, resembling greatly the coloration 

 of the Woodland caribou in its dark-brown body, with neck and 

 ventral area much lighter. Three male skulls average in 

 condylobasal length, 368 mm., which is greater than in arcticus 

 and considerably more than in the little pearyi. The upper 

 maxillary tooth row is also greater, 81-99 mm. Antlers of 

 adult males are large and spreading; the brow tines are not 

 greatly palmate, the main beam is bent sharply forward at 

 near a right angle at the most posterior point, at which there 

 is a small but well-developed backward tine. Although the 

 Greenland caribou has by some naturalists been associated with 

 the Old World reindeer as a subspecies, and by others is re- 

 garded as a derivative of the New World barren-ground cari- 



