110 THE DEER OF AMERICA. 



months after it has passed with most of them, with the species in 

 my grounds, and it is no doubt so with all the species. Much of 

 the southern or winter range of the Barren-ground Caribou is 

 south of the bai'ren grounds, or intersects their southern parts, so 

 that there the woodland caribou finds the forest which is indis- 

 pensable to his contentment, and to those forests the Barren- 

 ground Caribou resort during the winter season. Richardson 

 says : " Except in the rutting season, the bulk of the males and 

 females live separately ; the former retire deeper into the woods 

 in the winter, whilst herds of the pregnant class stay on the skirts 

 of the barren grounds and proceed to the coast very early in the 

 spring." 



Now, from all this it is impossible to avoid the conclusion 

 that the two species occasionally, yes, frequently, meet on this 

 common ground, at times when the sexes are drawn to each other, 

 and yet there is no evidence that there has been any intermin- 

 gling of the species. Each maintains its individualities as dis- 

 tinctly as when first discovered, and no doubt as they have 

 existed for ages. This could only have occurred from sexual 

 aversion, which does not exist between varieties of the same 

 species, but only where there are specific differences. Take a 

 white or albino deer of any species, and there is no sexual or so- 

 cial aversion between it and the other members of the species, and 

 the same is true of all other animals. By some means all seem to 

 look beyond the exceptional appearance of the individual and 

 recognize their fellow at a glance. This aversion is not absolute 

 and universal, no doubt, for we sometimes see individuals of dif- 

 ferent species, and even of different genera, contract a fondness 

 for each other, even to the extent of sexual intercourse ; but when 

 this is entirely voluntary, it is very exceptional. This more fre- 

 quently occurs among animals in domestication or in semi-domesti- 

 cation than in the wild state, but even there it may sometimes 

 occur when a mate of the same species cannot be found. Such 

 union between individuals of different species, when it does take 

 place, may most likely be fertile, and the hybrids may possess 

 the powers of reproduction, and may transmit that capacity to 

 their posterity, as we shall see, when we come to treat of Jiyhrid- 

 ity, but this is not conclusive of the specific identity of the orig- 

 inal parents. 



But for this general sexual aversion between individuals of 

 different species, no mere imaginary line could have kept these 

 two kinds of reindeer separate, to say nothing of how they origi- 



