THE WOODLAND CARIBOU. 109 



ments of what he does know; and to this author all friends 

 of the Caribou are more indebted for facts than to any other 

 recent writer. 



Like the Chameleon, the Caribou changes color, to the 

 eyes of investigators, and this gives rise to very amusing 

 disputes. Pallas describes it as of a rich, glossy reddish- 

 brown in summer, becoming grizzly about head, neck, and 

 belly toward winter; but he declares it never becomes any- 

 thing approaching to white! In the face of this statement, 

 Audubon gives us a beautiful Caribou, "in pure white and 

 brown," painted from Nature, and Caton says " the body is 

 sometimes nearly all white." For ocular demonstration, 

 the contributor has only to look at a skin that affords a soft, 

 white couch for his little daughter, who makes her annual 

 pilgrimage to the haunts of the Caribou in the Maine woods. 

 In July and August the Caribou sheds its winter coat, and 

 we find it with a smooth coat of short hair, a mingled red 

 and yellow brown, the under surface of the neck and belly 

 and the inner sides of the extremities remaining white all 

 the year. During the winter months, the hairs become so 

 thick and close that they stand erect, and the brittle 

 colored points are rubbed off, leaving a soft, white fur, 

 especially on the flanks. When the gad-fly makes its 

 appearance, at the close of winter, the Caribou rids himself 

 of his tormentor, and the remainder of his color- tipped hair 

 at the same time, by rubbing against rocks and stones, until 

 he becomes entirely white, and looks as spectral as a soiled 

 white fur will admit. 



The horns are so varied in shape that no two samples can 

 be found alike, and in no individual case do the horns grow 

 into the same shape or number of prongs as in the season 

 before. In both sexes there is a remarkable development 

 of brow-antlers, which extend forward over the forehead. 

 The horns of the Barren-ground Caribou are larger and 

 more graceful than those of the Woodland Caribou, 

 although he is so much smaller in size. A distinguishing 

 peculiarity of the Caribou antler is the great length of 

 beam of the antler in proportion to its thickness. In the 



