248 
ZOOLOGICA.L GARDENS. 
various Siberian tribes. Instead of the slender feet and 
narrow pointed hoofs of the Stag, it is furnished with 
thick bony fetlocks, the joints of which are surrounded 
by powerful ligaments, and with broad rounded hoofs, 
capable of being widely expanded, and giving to it the 
same facility for travelling over the soft and new-fallen 
snow without sinking, which the natives artificially 
acquire by means of their snow-shoes. The hoofs are 
also capable of being widely separated from each other, 
a provision which adds greatly to the security of their 
footing by increasing the surface on which they tread. 
In a state of nature the Rein-deer is essentially a 
migratory animal, and so powerful has been its influence 
on the habits of the pastoral tribes who depend on it 
for their subsistence, as to have rendered them in this 
particular subservient to its necessities, and compelled 
them to adopt a mode of life as unsettled as its own. 
In the depth of winter it retires to the wooded districts, 
subsisting principally upon the succulent lichens of the 
genera Usnea and Alectoria, which hang in long fila- 
mentous tufts from the branches of the trees. With the 
approach of spring it is gradually tempted to make 
short trips into the open country, but returns imme- 
diately on the recurrence of the frost. In these excur- 
sions it finds a change of food in the various species of 
Cornicularia, Cenomyce, and Cetraria that cover the 
barren grounds beneath the snow like a carpet, and are 
from this circumstance collectively known by the name 
of Rein-deer moss ; an appellation appropriated in the 
north of Europe to one particular species, but equally 
applicable to the whole. To get at these lichens it 
scrapes away the snow with its hoofs. As soon as the 
snows begin to melt, and the woods become infested 
by the insects of spring, the Rein-deer, fearful of the 
approaching heats, and anxious to escape from the 
