THE EEINDBBE. 447 



well as the males. They are of the same form as the bucks, but 

 are smaller and are not shed at the same time, for the animals 

 of the latter sex are deprived of their horns at the beginning of 

 the wmter, while the cow-reindeers retain theirs until the spring. 

 Why this should be has not been accurately ascertained, although 

 various conjectures have been made, but there seems no reason 

 why, if the horns are of any service to the one sex during the 

 winter, they should not be equally necessary to the other. The 

 horns of the male animal begin to grow again in the summer, and 

 by the middle of September are perfectly developed, and have 

 become hard and firm. Barnard remarks that the animals at this 

 time may often be seen rubbing their antlers against sandbanks in 

 order to get rid of the coating of skin, and stamping with their 

 hoofs on them till their horns are quite bare. "During this 

 operation," he observes, "they frequently lose a great deal of 

 blood. Should the weather be sunny their antlers assume a blood- 

 red appearance, but if rainy they are quite white." 



The reindeer is not a graceful animal, for the shortness and 

 thickness of the neck, and the size of the head, together with a 

 general want of symmetry, confer upon the animal anything but 

 the elegant and attractive appearance noticeable in the other 

 members of the deer genus. The head is not carried erect, but low 

 down, so as to form nearly a straight line with the back. The 

 antlers, however, are sometimes large and very ornamental. They 

 are sub -cylindrical, flat on the insides but rounded off on the outer. 

 The lower branches and tips are slightly palmated. Abnormal 

 instances are occasionally to be met with, in which a considerable 

 amount of palmation is exhibited throughout the entire extent of 

 the horns. Major Eoss King^ says, referring to the horns 

 of the caribou, " They are of singular and fantastic form, and 

 though of great expanse — apparently but ill adapted for a 

 forest-life — are so slight that their weight seldom exceeds nine 

 pounds. The stem of the horn is considerably curved, the con- 

 cave side being to the front, and the extremities of the palmated 

 brow-antlers nearly fifteen inches over the face. Sometimes 

 only one of these brow-antlers occurs on one or other of the 

 2 " The Sportsman and Naturalist in Canada." 



