Spitzbergen Race 41 



been greatly diminished, and in the north-western districts they have been 

 completely extirpated, although they are numerous in Ice-Fjord. Whether 

 the stock on this comparatively small island is from time to time replenished 

 by immigration across the ice from some unknown land to the north-east, 

 is not definitely known, although it is suggested that such may be the case. 



Apparently in all the continental parts of their habitat reindeer under- 

 take periodical migrations, and in Eastern Siberia herds numbering thousands 

 of individuals have been observed descending from the northern hills and 

 crossing the open plains to reach the forests where they pass the winter. 

 Such herds split up into minor parties, which move slowly and regularly, 

 and are led by an old deer of large size. One reason that these animals 

 migrate to high grounds in summer is to escape the attacks of mosquitoes 

 and gad-flies, by which they are much tormented in the valleys, 

 their skins being sometimes full of bots. The breeding habits appear 

 similar to those of the American races. Reindeer have been tried at Woburn 

 Abbey, but with no success, as they always die after a comparatively short 

 sojourn. This and other instances may be taken as a convincing proof that 

 the climate of England has undergone very considerable alteration since the 

 time when the country was inhabited by these animals. 



b. Spitzbergen Race — Rangifer tarandus spetzbergensis 



Cervus tarandus spetzbergensis, Andersen, Ofvers. Vet. Ak. ForhandL 

 1862, p. 457 ; Nitsche, Jahresb. Ver. Nat. Wurtt. 1893, p. ill. 



Characters. — This form is described as differing very markedly from 

 both the Scandinavian and Greenland races, but there are no mounted 

 examples in English collections. The most marked characteristic appears 

 to be afforded by the nasal bones of the skull, as figured by Dr. Nitsche. 

 In the Scandinavian reindeer these bones increase regularly in width from the 

 lower end to the maximum diameter on the line of the lachrymal vacuities, 

 but in the Spitzbergen form they are much expanded at both extremities 

 and deeply constricted in the middle, and there is also a decided difference 

 in the form of their superior border. The same type of nasal bones is 

 exhibited in a male skull in the British Museum purchased in Spitzbergen 

 by Dr. J. W. Gregory ; and I am informed by Mr. Trevor-Battye that the 

 same feature is constant in all the specimens that have come under his 



G 



