The North American Cervidce. 143 



the only other large ruminant is the musk -sheep, only retiring 

 southward to the forest belt in winter. 



The migration of the caribou is a notable feature in its habits, 

 and the journeys which it performs are longer and more regular than 

 those of any other species of North American Cervidce. Others, as 

 the elk (Cervus Canadensis) and the mule-deer (Cariacus macrotis), 

 change from one feeding ground to another at the approach of 

 winter and again in spring; but such changes do not usually involve 

 journeys of much more than seventy-five or a hundred miles, while 

 those of the caribou are far more extended. In the woodland caribou, 

 the migration seems to be little more than a mere restlessness, a de- 

 sire to keep moving, or a natural change from a winter feeding ground 

 to a summer one and back again; but, in the barren-ground form, the 

 journeys take place with so much regularity and are on such a large 

 scale that they have attracted the attention of all travelers who have 

 had opportunities of observing them. The last-named deer spend the 

 winter along the borders of the low forests near the arctic circle, and 

 at the approach of spring begin to travel northward toward the 

 shores of the Arctic sea, which they reach early in May, the females 

 preceding the males. Here the young are born, and the summer is 

 spent. The rutting season is in September, and soon afterward the 

 herds retrace their steps southward. In the island of Newfoundland, 

 however, where the woodland form is the only one found, a general 

 movement of these deer takes place in April, at which time they 

 leave the lowlands on which they have passed the winter, and where 

 food is at that season more easily obtained, and travel in a north- 

 westerly direction toward the higher mountainous country. Here 

 they remain during the summer, and at the approach of cold weather 

 a retrograde movement ensues. 



Caribou are notorious for being great travelers and almost con- 

 stantly on the move. Their powers of scent are very keen, and when 

 much hunted they are extremely wary and difficult of approach, and 

 if once started it is impossible to come up with them, for they do not 

 cease their flight until they have put a long distance between them- 

 selves and the danger which threatened. The gait of the caribou is 

 a long, swift trot. It never gallops, though when first frightened, it 

 may make a few startled bounds. This tireless trot, it is said, can be 

 kept up for many hours. 



