348 



MAMMALIA-REINDEER. 



his horns. Thus, the reindeer alone, affords all that we desire from the 

 horse, the ox, and the sheep. 



With frona three to five hundred deer, a Laplander can live with tolerable 

 comfort; with two hundred, he may, by management, contrive to get on; but 

 with a hundred, his subsistence is precarious ; and with only fifty, he must 

 be content to be the partner, or rather servant, of some more fortunate 

 individual. 



His food, in the winter season, is a white moss, {lichen rangifcrmus,) 

 which he finds under the snow, and which he ploughs up with his horns, or 

 -digs up with his feet. When the snow is too deep for them to obtain this 

 article, they resort to another lichen that hangs on pine trees ; and in severe 

 seasons the boors often cut do^vn some thousands of these trees, to furnish 

 subsistence to their herds. 



In summer, he lives upon the buds and leaves of trees, rather than herbs, 

 which his forward spreading antlers will not permit him to browse on, with 

 facility. They lead them to pasture, and relead them to the stable, or shut 

 them up in packs during the night, to shelter them from the outrages of the 

 wolves. Many fruitless attempts have been made to introduce them into 

 England. There is at present, hov/ever, in the Zoological Gardens, one 

 specimen, which was placed there in 1828, and appears to be still in a 

 thriving condition. The following figure represents this animal. 



The reindeers have, outwardly, many things in common with the stags ; 

 rnd the formation of the interior parts is the same. The reindeer sheds his 

 antlers every year, like the stag; and, like him, is good venison. The 

 females, both of the one and the other species, go eight months with young, 

 and produce but one at a birth. The young reindeer follows its mother 

 during the first two or three years, and does not attain his growth till about 



