THE NEWFOUNDLAND CARIBOU 319 



to see their horns clean until ist October. The usual type 

 of horn is a long thin snag of some 15 to 20 inches, with 

 a short, straight brow of i to 2 inches. Some, however, 

 have six or seven points and a few ten to twelve points. 

 A greater number of points than twelve is rare, the largest 

 number I have myself seen on live deer being heads of twelve, 

 thirteen, and fifteen points. The best head I know of is 

 that of a female shot by Matty Burke near the Tolt in 1904. 

 It bears twenty points, and is now in the possession of Mr. 

 Philip Ryan at Long Harbor. Joe Jeddore told me that 

 his brother Nicholas killed a female caribou in 1905 whose 

 horns carried twenty-eight small points. He was to have 

 sent the head to me, but the skull was eaten by dogs. 



Quite 8 per cent, of the female Newfoundland caribou 

 carry no external horns, ^ and yet I have never seen the 

 skull of a hornless female that did not possess small pedicles. 

 This is a somewhat interesting point, as it shows that there 

 is a tendency amongst the females of that island race to 

 lose their horns. It is remarkable, too, because all Nor- 

 wegian female reindeer possess horns of some kind, and the 

 Esquimaux of Labrador say they never see hornless females. 

 Of the Eastern Canadian race, breeding females about Abitibi 

 are frequently hornless, but Mr. Selous tells me that those of 

 the Yukon in Northern British Columbia are all horned. 



Calves are born in the woods in May, and have no 

 natural enemies except the lynx, which kills a few m the 

 early days of their existence. The mothers are very affec- 

 tionate and suckle the young until September, when they 

 are weaned. It is not unusual, however, to see a calf sucking 



' My calculations are based on some notes I took of female caribou seen in 

 open country, when I could easily examine them with the glass, in 1906. Out of 

 300 females, 1 had eleven points ; i, ten ; 3, eight; 25, six or seven; 246, four or 

 more points ; and 24 had no horns. 



