310 NEWFOUNDLAND 



the Woodland group, yet possessing habits practically identical 

 with true T. rangifer of Norway, and T. R. arcticus of the 

 Barren-lands. This is nothing more or less than confusion 

 worse confounded, and based on an ignorance of the habits 

 and movements of the various (so-called) sub-species. A 

 close study of the wild races of Europe, Asia, and America 

 has convinced me that nearly all reindeer spend a certain 

 number of months every year in the timber (when they can 

 find such shelter), and a certain time in the open grounds. 

 In parts of Arctic America the Mackenzie herds, and in 

 Finmark the Northern European herds, live for nearly six 

 months in forests, only repairing to the open tundra or 

 mountain wastes in autumn and winter, and again returning 

 to the forest belts in spring. The same may be said of most 

 of the other local races, whether so-called Barren-ground or 

 Woodland. 



In this work I have endeavoured to show, although it does 

 not seem to be known to naturalists, that the Newfoundland 

 caribou, which have always been known as a typical Woodland 

 race, does precisely the same thing, and leaves the timber 

 in October, returning to it again in the following April. Of 

 course I do not mean to dogmatise and say that all the 

 Newfoundland caribou thus travel, for during these great 

 migrations there are large numbers which do not leave the 

 woods at all, but are more or less stationary, whilst the main 

 body passes through their midst. It is a curious fact in 

 animal life, but no more strange than the habits of thrushes 

 and blackbirds which remain in our gardens at all seasons, 

 even in the autumn, while vast numbers of the same species 

 are passing overhead for southern climes. 



No doubt the reason of these movements of reindeer to 

 open ground is that which prompts the inspiration of migration 



