Reindeer 



variation, vet, as Mr. Caton observes, the antlers of reindeer " possess features 

 never to be mistaken by the careful observer, who will at once recognise the 

 caribou's antler, no matter what its form." In some types the beam is long 

 and rounded and the palmation slight, while in others the former is short 

 and flattened, and the latter greatly developed. Then, again, whereas in 

 some antlers the back-tine is placed far above the level of the bez, and the 

 terminal expansion separated by a long interval from the back-tine, in 

 others the bez is very much expanded, and situated high up on the short 

 beam, only just below the line of the back-tine, so as to form a dichotomous 

 fork with the other half of the beam. Asymmetry is likewise a very 

 frequent feature. In a Norwegian reindeer in the British Museum with a 

 simple brow-tine on one side, the corresponding tine of the opposite side is 

 w anting. In the American woodland reindeer, one brow-tine, generally the 

 left, is enormously palmated, while the other forms a simple prong. 



A magnificent series of reindeer antlers is preserved in the British 

 Museum, but, unfortunately, in a large proportion of these the locality is not 

 recorded, in many cases there being no evidence even as to the hemisphere 

 from which they were obtained. Consequently it is no easy matter in this 

 country to obtain a good idea of the characters distinguishing the antlers of 

 the various geographical sub-species. On account of the different curvatures 

 of the beam, reindeer antlers are extremely difficult to measure accurately ; 

 the following measurements of some fine examples are taken from Mr. 

 Rowland Ward's work, but in several cases the locality is unknown : — 



Extreme Length. 



Circumference. 



Maximum Span. 



Locality. 



62 



si 



49$ 



Canada 



60 



si 



4ig 



? 





7 



44 



? 



sn 



Si 



? 



Arctic regions 



Sl{ 



si 



444 





54-3 



4 



? 



North America 



54 



6f 





? 



54 



5 



4ii 



Norway 





4 



29 



? 



49 



4* 



323 



? 



48 





25£ 



Newfoundland 



47i{ 



si 



p 



North America 



47 



4 s 



29 



Norway 



