42 



VERTEBRATES ; MAMMALS. 



Maine, northern New York, and Canada, but is rapidly 

 disappearing. The color is grayish brown. 



The Reindeer is a much smaller animal than the 

 Moose, being about five feet long and three feet high. 

 It has become celebrated for the services it renders the 

 Laplanders, who keep large herds of Reindeer, and use 

 them for beasts of burden and for drawing their sledges. 

 Their milk and flesh are good for food, and their skins 

 are used for clothing. They are very hardy animals, 



Fig. 59. — American Reindeer, or Caribou. 



and subsist on the coarsest fare, eating the tender por- 

 tions of shrubs in summer, and in winter scraping the 

 snow from the ground and feeding upon the " reindeer 

 moss." The American Reindeer, or Caribou, of Maine 

 and Canada, and otlier northern parts of North Amer- 

 ica, is by some thought to be of the same kind as the 



