THE AMERICAN REINDEER. 131 



tics from lichens, and especially from the reindeer moss 

 (identical in Europe with that of America), is interesting 

 and readily suggests the value of this primitive vegeta- 

 tion in supporting animal life in a Boreal climate as a 



heat-jDroducing food. Besides the above, which ap})ears * 



to be its staple food, the cariboo partakes of the tripe de ' j 



roche (Sticla pulmonaria) and other jxirasitic lichens ' 



growing on the bark of trees, and is exceedingly fond \ \ 



of the Usnea, which grows on the boughs (especially j 

 affecting the top) of the black spruce, in long, pendant 



hanks. In the forests on the Cumberland Hills, in Nova ' 



Scotia, I have observed the snow quite trodden down | 



during the night by the cariboo, which had resorted to j; 



feed on the " old man's beards " in the tops of the spruces ' jj 



felled by the lumberers on the day previous. In tlie .'j 



same locality I have observed such frequent scratchings li 



in the first light snow cf the season at the foot of the , j| 



trees in l)eecli groves, that I am convinced that the i| 



animal, like the bear, is partial to the rich food ati'orded ■ 



by the mast. f 



I am not aware that a favourite item of the diet of the \\ 



Norweuian reindeer — Ranunculus y'lacialis — is found in ' 



America, and the woodland carilwo has no chance of ex- J) 



hi])itiiiu: the stran<2;e but well-authenticated taste of the ;:; 



former animal l)y devouring the h'lnming ; otherwise the '-^ 



habits of the two varieties are perfectly similar as regards ^ 

 food. 



The woodland cariboo, like tlie La[)lander's reindeer, ^. 



is essentially a migratoiy animal. Thei'e are two well- y 



defined pt^riods of migration — in the spring and autumn — ^ 



whilst throughout the winter it a[)pears constantly seized \ 



with an unconquerable desire to change its residence. i 



K 2 



