48 BULLETIN 1089, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
The time for castration should be governed by the weather, as it 
is unwise to undertake it when the weather is hot and flies are 
abundant. The proper time to operate on fawns or yearlings is 
when green food is available and before the hot weather and the 
flies appear. As it is unsafe to rope or handle adult reindeer when 
the horns are in the velvet, on account of danger of injury, castra- 
tion of the older animals should take place either early in the spring 
before the horns are grown, although they are harder to handle at 
this time, or else after the velvet has "set," which is just before 
rutting, or about August 20. 
Cleanliness in the operation is important to avoid infection, and 
disinfectants should be used to keep the hands and the instruments 
clean. The operator should not have to handle the animals, but 
they should be thrown and held as he directs. 
FAWNING. 
The average period of gestation in reindeer is 7 months and 7 
days, so that the first fawns generally appear about April 10. In 
1920 and 1921 the first signs of rutting were noticed the latter part 
of August, and it continued into October (PL XIX, Fig. 1). Dur- 
ing rutting time the herd should be placed in the best pasture avail- 
able and should be very little disturbed, and during the latter part 
of the winter the does should be kept as quiet as possible for at 
least two months before fawning, in order to avoid accidents. 
In selecting areas to be used by reindeer during the fawning pe- 
riod, at least two requirements must be borne in mind, namely, 
ample green feed, so that the does will produce sufficient milk for 
the fawns, and a site giving protection against severe storms. A 
good fawning range should have as good natural protection as the 
topography and surface cover will allow, particularly in the way 
of coves and hollows and available patches of protecting brush or 
timber. Low altitudes with favorable exposures for the early 
growth of vegetation afford the most desirable fawning grounds. 
Along the coast of Alaska fawning usually takes place on some 
portion of the summer range, either on exposed flats immediately 
along the beach or on the south slopes of the low hills adjoining it. 
The snow leaves these areas earliest, exposing patches of bare tundra, 
where the first fresh growth appears, thus making available the 
succulent green feed necessary for the does during fawning (PL 
XIX, Fig. 2). This early growth usually consists of young shoots 
or flowering stalks of the small cotton sedge (Eriophorum callitrix) 
which appear abundantly on the tundra, and its green blades also 
are found here and there on protected spots. 
A definite fawning ground should be established and used on 
each reindeer allotment, both from the standpoint of best care of 
