CONGENERS. 327 
teristic, however, that they spring from the beam in front just 
above the burr in a descending direction nearly in the facial line 
one or both of which usually extend nearly the length of the face 
and is palmated at the end, presenting numerous snags curving 
inward. Above, the antler is more or less palmated. The ant- 
lers on both varieties are of about the same magnitude propor- 
tioned to the size of the animal. 
As with the moose and the elk, the difference in these consists 
principally in the extent of the palmatation. This feature is 
even more marked in Yarandus than in Alces. They are also 
less branched in the European variety than in the American. 
These differences will be better understood by an examination 
of the illustrations than they could be by verbal descriptions. 
Those copied from Captain Hardy’s “ Forest Life in Acadie,” ! 
present nearly the extreme of palmatation in the American 
variety, and for that very reason are valuable as showing to what 
extent this feature sometimes occurs in this country, — an extent 
which I have nowhere found paralleled in the European variety, 
either in life, in collections, or illustrations. J have met with a 
few fancy sketches greatly exaggerating the extent and number 
of branches on the European variety, which were evidently de- 
signed to impress those who saw them rather than instruct the 
student of natural history. These should not ‘mislead us. The 
illustrations of the antlers of the Woodland Caribou (ante, pp. 
200, 202) are carefully drawn copies of specimens in my own 
collection, and are selected to give the fair ordinary form of the 
Caribou’s antlers, that is, the average form. One of these, from 
the Caribou, shows as little palmatation as that from the Euro- 
pean Reindeer and may be considered the other extreme in this 
regard, and should be set opposite those from Hardy, while the 
mean between them may be considered the truth. It will be 
observed, that the nearly palmless antlers of the Caribou are very 
much stouter than those from the European Reindeer. 
If we take mounted specimens, to be met with in public collec- 
tions, they would generally be found more palmated, for the sim- 
ple reason that we are apt to select the best, that is, the largest, 
the most branching, or most palmated specimens for mounting ; 
and indeed the hunter is more apt to save these than inferior or 
ordinary specimens, for the reason that they will bring him a 
higher price. These are matters ever to be borne in mind by 
him who would study or illustrate nature as it actually exists. 
1 Ante, p. 206. 
