REINDEER AND ITS ORIGIN 3 



animals of Greenland have to be considered more in detail. It 

 is especially the beasts or mammals that are of importance 

 because their distribution and geological history are better 

 known than those of the smaller animals. They also enable 

 us to readily appreciate the more recent changes in the fauna, 

 and the causes which have led to them. 



The most noteworthy and best known of the Greenland 

 mammals is the reindeer. The term reindeer (Eangifer 

 tarandus) is employed for the sake of convenience in its wide 

 sense. In America it has been the custom for many years 

 past to distinguish under the names of " barren-ground 

 caribou," and " woodland caribou " two strikingly different 

 forms which occur on the continent, the term " caribou " 

 being probably derived from the Indian word " maccaribo." 

 Not only have these two kinds of 'reindeer dissimilar habits, 

 they also differ from one another in size, and in the structure 

 of their skulls and antlers. More recently, smaller groups of 

 reindeer have been discovered, showing distinctive characters 

 in their antlers alone. Several of the nine forms thus 

 recognised as American are founded upon comparatively 

 slight differences. An illustrated account of these various 

 American reindeer has been given by Mr. Madison Grant.* 



Mr. Lydekker f holds that they and the Old World forms 

 are all referable to one single species, of which he distin- 

 guishes six varieties. Whether these differences are to be 

 regarded as specific or varietal is a matter of opinion, but, 

 as th,e antlers of reindeer are so very variable, it has been 

 suggested by Professor Camerano that the structure of the 

 skull might be utilised to greater advantage in discriminating 

 between the various varieties or species. In his researches 

 on the Spitsbergen form, he argues that there are three 

 species, viz., the reindeer of Spitsbergen (R. spitsbergensis). 

 the one inhabiting Greenland, Norway, Lapland and part of 

 Siberia (R. tarandus), and lastly the American reindeer (R. 

 caribou) . Among the last two species he distinguishes again 

 between the reindeer possessing cylindrical (cylindricornis) 

 and those having compressed (compressicornis) antlers. 



It is worthy of note that the reindeer of Scandinavia and 



* Grant, Madison, " The Caribou." 



f Lydekker, E., " The Deer of all Lands," p. 33. 



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