354 Proceedings' of the 



these a trivial notice occurs of their using their horns as well 

 as their feet (which are their principal implements), but in 

 most of them the feet are mentioned alone as used for this 

 purpose, and no notice taken of the horns; so much so, that 

 Colonel Smith says, in continuation of the passage already 

 quoted, — " With them (the horns) they (the North American 

 species) are also said to remove the snow, but it does not ap- 

 pear that this process has been noticed in Lapland." This 

 flat triangular blade, therefore, which is the proper and full- 

 grown form of horn in the adult animal, and thus the normal 

 and specific form, I consider to be one of the principal cha- 

 racters of the North American species. 



It may, however, be said that this habit, and corresponding 

 apparatus, in the American rein-deer, are mere variations in- 

 duced by climate, and not specific distinctions. But it humbly 

 appears to me that this character cannot be so treated. That 

 a species inhabiting a colder and more barren district should 

 degenerate in size may be admitted; and we should not, on ac- 

 count of its smaller size, think of making it anything more 

 than a climatal variety; but that an animal should be pro- 

 vided with a different or a more developed apparatus in order 

 to accommodate it to a different condition of life, seems to 

 imply much more than such a variety. If the North Ame- 

 rican Barren Ground animal is provided with this triangu- 

 lar spade or shovel because the snow is deeper in America 

 than in Lapland, and a more efficient implement is neces- 

 sary to enable it to get at its food, I look upon this as being 

 in itself proof of the distinctness of the species. If, on the 

 other hand, the snow is not deeper in America than in Lap- 

 land, then the difference in the apparatus makes still more 

 against the climatal theory ; for here we would have a differ- 

 ent form for the same conditions of life. 



There are other differences besides those of the horns. The 

 colour of the North American species is lighter, both in its 

 summer and its winter garb — being yellowish-brown or fawn- 

 coloured, instead of dark-brown, in summer, and white, instead 

 of grey, in winter — matters which per se are not of much con- 

 sequence, but which, taken along with other differences, are of 

 some weight. 



