RUMINANTIA-CERVINAE—R ANGIFER GROENLANDICUS. 
635 
Of this species, as of the preceding, I have not the means of presenting any satisfactory 
diagnosis, although the opinion appears to be gradually gaining ground that it is distinct. The 
animal is much smaller than the woodland reindeer; the does not larger than a good-sized 
sheep. The bucks, when fat, weigh, after being cleaned, from 80 to 125 pounds. Notwith¬ 
standing this inferiority in size to the caribou of Maine and Canada, the horns are actually 
much longer, and more graceful in shape, as will be seen by the accompanying figures, taken 
from Greenland specimens: 
Fig. 7 .—Rangifer groenlandicus, No. 906. North Greenland. Male. Right horn from inside, showing the palmated 
brow antler. The left horn is without it. Size, 7.08 inches to the inch. 
Fig. 8.—The same species, No. 905, from the same locality, supposed to be a female. No palmated brow antler on 
either side. Right antler from inside. Size, 6.83 inches to the inch. 
The most positive statement in reference to the difference of the barren ground and woodland 
reindeer is to be found in the work of Dr. King, quoted at the head of this article. In this, 
the author, after saying that his investigations and collections fully prove them distinct, regrets 
that the loss of the latter prevents him from substantiating his assertions. He, however, 
mentions that the barren ground species is peculiar not only in the form of its liver, but in not 
possessing a receptacle for bile. 
The barren ground reindeer, as its name implies, is found in the barren district of arctic 
America, constituting the northeastern corner of the continent along the Polar Sea, hounded to 
the west by Great Slave, Athapasca, Wollaston, and Deer Lakes, and the Coppermine River, and 
to the south by Churchill River. It, however, ranges along the shores of the Arctic Ocean, 
