APRIL 21, 1906.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 

the Rocky Mountains to the west. It is a larger 
animal than the Barren Ground reindeer, and is 
not met with in the “barrens” proper, nor on the 
shores of the Polar Sea. Like the latter, the 
females produce one or two fawns in spring. The 
rutting season, as well as the period of gestation 
and time of birth, are said to be much the same 
as in the case of moose. The eyes of the young 
are open when born, the skin is light brown, and 
they soon become quite lively and strong. They 
are suckled for several months. The skin of the 
woodland caribou is dressed by the native women 
and afterward’ made into necessary moccasins, 
gloves, tunics and trousers, and sometimes wo- 
men’s dresses. Those cut by the gadfly are con- 
verted into “babiche” for lacing snow-shoes, and 
occasionally into thongs of various thickness, 
which were formerly, if not now, twisted into 
snares for capturing deer. ; 
Herds of the woodland species seldom exceed 
thirty or forty individuals, except in the autumn, 
when sometimes quite a large number congregate 
together. They do not associate with the Barren 
Ground reindeer, and seldom quit the forest 
country. Although known to exist at no great 
distance to the south, we never, to my knowledge, 
received at Fort Anderson an example in the 
flesh, except the ribs of a few in a dried state; 
but in course of my six years’ charge of Fort 
Good Hope (latitude 66° 16’ north) the Hare and 
Nahanni Indians frequently supplied the estab- 
lishment with a number of dressed skins and a 
considerable quantity of the venison of this ani- 
mal. A similar remark would apply to my five 
years’ residence at Fort Simpson (latitude 62° 
north, longitude 122° west); but although the 
species is fairly distributed throughout New Cale- 
donia district, British Columbia, we seldom ob- 
tained any of its meat or preserved skins during 
my two years’ charge. 
It is not uncommon in the Athabasca and Peace 
River districts, nor at Cumberland House, Saskat- 
chewan, where we occasionally received some 
venison and skins, while I was stationed there in 
1889 to 1894. It is not improbable, however, that 
the variety of woodland caribou found in the 
Rocky Mountains of northern Canada may belong 
to the mountain caribou discovered in the Selkirk 
Range of British Columbia and made known to 
science by Mr. Thompson Seton in 1899. It is 
said to be darker in color than Maine and other 
eastern specimens. 
Barren Ground Reindeer. 
Rangifer arcticus (Richardson). 
Although this interesting animal has of late 
years been very irregular in frequenting ancient 
passes and haunts in the forest country, and in 
numbers very considerably less than formerly, yet 
it is believed to be still very numerous in the 
“Mackenzie Basin.” The northern Indians were 
accustomed, in the face of repeated remonstrances 
on the part of the company’s officers and resident 
missionaries, to slaughter thousands of reindeer 
annually, chiefly for the skins and tongues, and 
too often from the sheer love of killing. But as 
they have latterly experienced protracted spells of 
food scarcity and even actual starvation, I believe it 
has taught them to be more careful and provident. 
Since the introduction of steam also into the 
districts of Athabasca (1883) and the Mackenzie 
River (1886) the provision posts of both have not 
been called upon to furnish more than a _ bare 
quota of the quantities of dried meat and pem- 
mican absolutely required under the old inland 
York boat system of transportation. The hunting 
of reindeer has, therefore, largely declined, no 
doubt to their increase in numbers, and the In- 
dians are able to devote more of their attention 
to the trapping of fur-bearing animals. 
The Eskimos of Anderson and Mackenzie riv- 
ers, however, were never guilty of waste of food 
in the same inexcusable manner. They are a 
more provident race, and seldom suffer privation 
for want of food. In course of the company’s five 
years’ occupation of Fort Anderson we received 
considerable quantities of venison and many skins 
of the Barren Ground reindeer from the Eskimos 
and Indians who came there for purposes of trade. 
During the comparatively short season of open 
water the Anderson and Liverpool Bay Eskimos 
were engaged in fishing and hunting reindeer 
along the river, as well as walrus, seals and some- 

FOUR-STORY NEST OF SUMMER YELLOWBIRD, 
Courtesy of the Field Columbian Museum, Chicago, IIl. 
times whales in the contiguous polar seas. In 
spring, when the reindeer were on their annual 
migration to the coast, but especially on their fall 
return to the woods, the Eskimos shot and 
speared a great number; in the former season 
while browsing on the slopes and summits of the 
Anderson River banks, and in the latter, when 
in the water making for their customary crossing 
points or passes. In both cases, the successful 
hunter inserted an arrow in the carcass, so that 
on its floating by the lodges lower down the river 
it might be taken ashore for the benefit of the 
party by whom it had been killed. 
Early in December the Eskimos usually retired 
to their driftwood-constructed huts, or winter 
houses, at various points along thé coast, but 
before doing so they always made more or less 
provision for their return to the Anderson River 
in the beginning of the succeeding month of April 
by placing in one or more caches (built on and 
formed of large blocks of thick ice, well protected 
from wolves and wolverines, the chief robbers to 
be feared) some thirty or forty miles from its 
outlet in Liverpool Bay, a considerable quantity 
of fresh venison. 
[TO BE CONCLUDED. | 
Strategy of the Summer Warbler. 
By most people who know anything about our 
North American birds the cowbird is regarded 
as a wicked creature; a parasite she certainly is, 
sparing herself all the labors and anxieties of 
housekeeping by the selfish method of foisting 
her eggs upon smaller birds and leaving to them 
the labor of hatching and rearing her offspring, 
Nor is this labor and anxiety the only ‘suffering 
that these foster parents endure, for the wretched 
young cowbird, larger and lustier than his foster 
brothers, soon either devours all the food brought 
by the mother, and so starves them to death, or 
eise, it is said, crushes’ them by his superior 
weight or even throws them out of the nest, so 
that they perish miserably on the ground be- 
neath. Moreover, it is often found that the eggs 
belonging to the owner of the nest in which the 
cowbird lays her eggs are broken or at least 
punctured, and it is suspected that the mother 
cowbird with bill or feet breaks: these. eggs, so 
that there shall be more:room in the nest for the 
changeling that she has introduced. 
The cowbird lays her eggs in the nests:of many 
birds, most of them noticeably smaller than her- 
