THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
for safety, owing to the presence of shifting winds, and also to escape the 
attacks of the parasitic flies of the order Oestridce , the females of which 
lay their eggs in the back, flanks, and nostrils of t the deer and cause 
them much suffering. Reindeer feed in the sheltered corries and flats, 
where the reindeer moss is found; in the early morning and evening lying 
high up on stony hill faces, or on the snow -braes during the warm hours 
of the day. They usually feed upwind and are not always so easy to ap- 
proach as red deer owing to their excellent sense of smell. The slightest 
puff of wind from man causes them to dash off at full gallop, and they 
seldom settle down or halt until many miles have been covered, often 
leaving a district altogether when once they have been thoroughly alarmed. 
Their powers of sight and hearing are not equal to red deer and many other 
species, but their noses are far superior, whilst a certain dread of alarm 
seems to pervade the herds so as to make them liable to sudden panics, 
and this is one of the greatest difficulties in hunting these animals. I have 
often seen reindeer, when quietly feeding, take no notice of crashing rocks 
falling in their vicinity, and then for no apparent reason the nervous fear 
that something was wrong would communicate itself to the herd, and with- 
out warning they would dash off at full gallop and go for miles until they 
were completely lost to view. 
In summer their principal food is Lichen rangiferinus , and in autumn 
and winter they also dig it up with the fore -feet. In summer they also eat 
quantities of Ranunculus glacialis , anemone vernal is, and many kinds of 
dwarf shrubs that grow about the snow -line. When the snow falls they 
eat quantities of four kinds of Salix , namely, S. glauca , S. polaris, S. lanata, 
and S. herbacea\ whilst in winter they are very fond of alder and birch 
shoots. It is said that in a great lemming year they crush to death large 
numbers of these small rodents with their hoofs and devour the vegetable 
contents of their stomachs. 
Reindeer are in Norway essentially gregarious and gather in very large 
herds both before and during the rutting season. The percentage of females 
and immatures is very large, for the old males are comparatively scarce, 
numbering only about six per cent. This makes the chase of the latter all 
the more difficult and exciting. The females sometimes carry quite large 
horns, the best I have seen numbering twenty-four points, whilst twenty 
points are not uncommon; but in size they bear no comparison to the horns 
of the males, nor can they possibly be mistaken for them. The horns of the 
females often remain on the heads until April, whereas the bucks cast 
294 
