COAT AND COLOR. 141 



Of the individual hairs, Captain Hardy says : " The extremi- 

 ties only of the hairs are black ; towards the centre they become 

 of a light ashy gray, and finally, towards the roots, dull white." 

 With this description most authors substantially agree. My own 

 examination, however, shows many exceptions to this, especially 

 upon the neck, where I find many hairs black nearlj^ their whole 

 length, and quite a number snow-white, from one extremity to 

 the other. 



The coat of under fur, which is almost as abundant as on our 

 elk, is of a uniform drab, and does not undergo the same changes 

 of color which are observed with the long coarse hair, which 

 alone are seen by the superficial observer. 



While the head and the legs of the Woodland Caribou are al- 

 ways distinctly colored, in a large majority of individuals white 

 predominates, especially on the neck, which is almost universally 

 the whitest part of the animal. The long white mane of the old 

 buck is a very striking characteristic. Hardy says, "The white 

 mane reaching to over a foot in length in old males, which hangs 

 pendant from the neck with a graceful curve to the front, is one 

 of the most noticeable and ornamental attributes of the species." 

 This description is undoubtedly of the late winter coat when the 

 hairs have attained their full length. There is less uniformity in 

 the colors of the bodies than of the head, neck, and legs. While 

 the head and legs are tawny brown of varying intensity, and 

 the neck white, on some much more pronounced than on others, 

 the body is sometimes nearly all white, while others are a rich 

 rufous brown on the back as well as the legs, and only the tail 

 and rump are white above and the belly and inside of the legs are 

 also white. Like all the others, the early winter coat, which re- 

 places the summer coat in September, is of the deepest color, is 

 finer, softer, and more brilliant than later, when the clove-brown 

 shade which first prevailed has given place to the dirty white of 

 midwinter. 



Dr. Gilpin thus sums up the colorings of the Caribou : " In 

 winter, soiled yellowish white ; neck, rump, tail, and under parts, 

 pure white ; legs white inside, outside brown, with white fringes. 

 In summer, neck, extending into fore-shoulder, rump and tail, 

 under parts, and inside of legs pure white, all other parts clove- 

 brown ; sometimes reddish and yellowish, with black patch on 

 cheek and eye, with white fringe on hoofs." 



The hairs when separately examined are found to be excep- 

 tional in color in this, that the tips are never black, and generally 



