The Caribou or Reindeer. 345 



THE REINDEER OR CARIBOU. 



The word Caribou applied to the American Reindeer, is 

 a contraction or corruption of the name "caire boeuf" — 

 square ox — given this animal by the French Canadians 

 when it was first discovered in America. 



The Woodland variety (Rangifer-caribou), which 

 stands about four and one-half feet at the shoulders, and 

 weighs from three hundred and fifty to four hundred 

 pounds, is found in Labrador, northern Canada, Maine, 

 Minnesota, northern Idaho and Montana, Oregon in the 

 neighborhood of Mt. Hood, British Columbia, and south- 

 ern Alaska to the head waters of the Yukon River. It 

 is twice the size of the barren ground Caribou (Rangifer- 

 groenlandicus), whose habitat in the summer is confined 

 to Greenland and the barren arctic wastes north of the 

 forest regions of North America, but which in winter 

 makes extensive migrations into the territory of the 

 "Woodland Caribou, but even when living in the same 

 district the two species do not intermingle. 



In its wild state the Caribou, like the European Rein- 

 deer (Rangifer-tarandus), lives on mosses, leaves, grass 

 and aquatic plants, its great resource being lichens. Like 

 the European variety, the American Reindeer is an ani- 

 mal of great speed and endurance, "frequenting marshy 

 and swampy grounds, and loving ice-covered lakes and 

 ponds as much as any boy." Caribous are so shy they are 

 difficult animals to stalk, but they can be easily killed by 

 the hunter who, taking advantage of the wind, shoots as 

 they pass along on their migrations, when they travel in 

 herds and are not as shy and wary as when wandering 

 singly. 



But little is known about the breeding habits of the 

 Reindeer, though it is understood that the "barren 

 grounds" Caribou pairs in winter, and the Woodland 

 species in September. The antlers of the bucks are shed in 

 December, but the small antlers with which the does are 

 provided do not fall until the spring. The fawns are 

 produced in May, and are either one or two in number. 



