180 MORROW — A NOTE ON THE CARIBOU. 



base, and another very small one like a flat teat,* in the same line as 

 the large one, one and a half inches below it, in size about half an 

 inch long, three eights of an inch wide, and about one eighth of an 

 inch thick ; and it has no gall bladder. It is more than probable 

 that this form of liver and absence of the gall bladder is common to 

 the deer tribe: Goldsmith says "all the deer tribe want the gall 

 bladder." 



I have never seen a barren ground Caribou, nor any description 

 of the animal giving the peculiarity in the form of the liver of this 

 species, so called ; but the structure of the barren ground and wood- 

 land varieties of Caribou is most likely the same, and the difference 

 in size and horns is probably due to climate and food, while the 

 migrations in contrary directions of the two ' ' varieties in the barren 

 grounds" and " woodland districts " of Sir John Richardson, may 

 be accounted for by the fact that each is taking its nearest course to 

 the sea coast. 



Our worthy President, Dr. Gilpin, in a paper read before the 

 Institute, February 11, 1871, and published in the Transactions, 

 says, speaking of the varieties, " Reindeer, Caribou, and Woodland 

 Caribou, are their local names. In addition to this the extreme 

 north possesses a deer smaller than any of those, with much larger 

 horns, and with no gall bladder ; otherwise the same. Sir John 

 Richardson calls them a permanent variety, naming them Barren 

 Ground Caribou. The absence of the gall bladder seems a very 

 great divergence ; yet can any one tell me has our Caribou one ? " 

 With regard to the gall bladder I know that Dr. Gilpin has been for 

 some time aware that our Caribou does not possess one, but he has 

 not mentioned the peculiar form of the liver, nor do I think that 

 it has been previously noticed. 



* This is not always present 



