THE REINDEER 



The typical representative of the species is the Scandinavian reindeer, the 

 one represented in the illustration, which occurs in both the wild and the 

 domesticated condition. It is a comparatively small animal, with relatively short 

 limbs, and the antlers rounded, and not displaying, as a rule, any very excessive 

 development in the width of one of the lower pair of front tines. In Siberia other 

 and larger, but still imperfectly known, races occur ; while in Arctic America the 

 species is represented by two very distinct types, more or less connected by a 

 number of intermediate races. 



The recently described Finnish race of the reindeer {Rangifer tarandus 

 fennictis), now nearly extinct, is a larger animal than its Swedish representative. 



Of the two chief American types, the most northern is the so-called Barren- 

 ground reindeer or caribou (R. t. arcticus), in which the antlers are rounded and 

 of great length, with the basal front tines far removed from those of the terminal 

 extremity; while the woodland reindeer (R. t. caribu), on the other hand, has 

 the antlers short, flattened, and with the tines crowded together, very large, and 

 often much branched. In some of these American reindeer one of the lower 

 pair of front tines often attains an enormous width, or depth, and is much 

 branched. 



There is likewise great racial variation in the matter of colour among 

 American reindeer, the lightest being the Newfoundland R. t. novce-terrcz, while 

 the darkest is R. t. osborni of the Cascade Mountains, in which the greater part 

 of the body is chocolate, or even blackish brown. 



Reindeer, alike in the Old World and in America, are accustomed to 

 undertake long seasonal migrations in search of food, travelling southwards in 

 autumn, and returning to the northern part of their range in summer. Moreover, 

 in many districts they are compelled to retire in summer from the open plains to 

 the shelter of mountain forests on account of the attacks of various insects, more 

 especially the reindeer-fly. Here it may be mentioned that the latter insect is 

 found in certain continental localities far south of the present range of the 

 reindeer, where it has doubtless existed since the time when that animal had a 

 wider distribution. In their migrations, several thousands of reindeer frequently 

 collect in herds of from two hundred to three hundred head, which travel one after 

 another in long lines, each led, it is reported, by an old cow, and the whole forming 

 a very forest of antlers. They swim the widest rivers with ease. 



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