THE GLANDS. 255 
occupying the same sub-Arctic region, the moose and the Swed- 
ish elk. 
The specific identity of our Woodland Caribou with the Lap- 
land Reindeer, C. tarandus, has long been a subject of discussion, 
if not of controversy, among naturalists ; but I have studied them 
in vain to find any specific difference between them, and the cor- 
respondence of this mark, to say the least, harmonizes with this 
conclusion. In another place, I assign the reasons which incline 
me to think that there is a specific difference between our north- 
ern and southern Reindeer, which it is unnecessary to here antici- 
pate, and if this conclusion be justified, it would follow that the 
European species could not be the same as our Barren-ground Car- 
ibou. The Woodland Caribou is undoubtedly larger than either 
the wild or the tame Reindeer of Europe, but there is said to be 
a variety of Reindeer in northeastern Asia corresponding in size 
to our Woodland Caribou. It was the Lapland Reindeer which I 
personally studied, on all of which the metatarsal gland was 
entirely wanting, and so I am constrained to conclude that Dr. 
Gray was in error, when, in his specific description of the same 
animal, he said: ‘“* The external metatarsal gland is above the 
middle of the leg.” However, the same careful and intelligent 
observer tells us that upon an examination of the reindeer in the 
British Museum, he thought he could observe the internal tufts, 
but no trace of the external, the entire hinder edge of the met- 
atarsus being covered with a uniform, very thick coat of hair, 
thus corresponding with my observations of the same animal and 
of our Woodland Caribou. I will add that I was unable to de- 
tect the metatarsal gland or any outside tuft of hair on the 
mounted specimen of the European Reindeer in the Smithsonian 
collection, but the difficulty of making sure work with dried 
specimens always leaves me in doubt as to correct conclusions, and 
especially on this particular point. I sought long and carefully 
for this gland on a dried skin of a deer from South America 
without detecting a trace of it, but after softening the skin with a 
day’s soaking, a very little examination plainly revealed it un- 
covered with hair, but with the horny scale, as on the Virginia 
deer or the mule deer. 
On the two specimens of the Barren-ground Caribou I find the 
same glandular system on the hind leg as on the larger species. 
Our Elk, 0. Canadensis, is the only species of North American 
deer which is without the tarsal gland, and so falls into the first 
section of Dr. Gray’s classification, as elsewhere stated, although 
