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 nearly 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 
