Forest life in Acadie : Sketches of sport and natural history in the lower provinces of the Canadian dominion . an in the case of theEuropean variety. In most instances there is but one well-developedbrow antler, the other being a solitary curv^ed prong ;sometimes, however, as shown in the illustration, veryhandsome specimens occur of two perfect brow snagsmeeting in front of the forehead, the prongs interweavinglike the fingers of joined hands. Except in the case of the does and young bucks,which retain theirs till spring, it is seldom that horns areseen in a herd of cariboo after Christmas.
Forest life in Acadie : Sketches of sport and natural history in the lower provinces of the Canadian dominion . an in the case of theEuropean variety. In most instances there is but one well-developedbrow antler, the other being a solitary curv^ed prong ;sometimes, however, as shown in the illustration, veryhandsome specimens occur of two perfect brow snagsmeeting in front of the forehead, the prongs interweavinglike the fingers of joined hands. Except in the case of the does and young bucks,which retain theirs till spring, it is seldom that horns areseen in a herd of cariboo after Christmas. The reason•to which the retention of the horns by the female reindeerduring winter has l)een attributed by some speculativewriters—namely, in order to clear away the deep encnistedsnow, and enable her fawns to get at the moss beneath—is simply wrong. The animal never use? any othermeans than its hoofs to scrape for its moss ; whilst thethin sharp prongs of tlie doe woidd prove anything but anefficient shovel. The latter and true mode of proceeding1 have often watched when wormino- throuQ-h the bushes. HORNS OF THE CARIBOO. 1. The oidinary Canailian type. 2. ( horns fr»m Newfoundland.:!. Horns from Labrador. THE AMERICAN REINDEER. 129 round tlic edge of a barren to get a shot. Both Mr. Bar-nard, and the author of Ten Years in Sweden, alludeto the female reindeer using her horns in winter to pro-tect the fawns from the males, thus rightly accountingfor this singular provision of nature in the case of agregarious species in which the males, females, andyouno- herd too-ether at all seasons. Another misrepresentation has appeared with regardto the reindeer : it has been compared, when obliged tocross a lake on ice, to a cat on walnut-shells! I cannotconceive any variation in a point so intimately connectedwith its winter habits on the part of the European rein-deer, if the two are, as I believe, identical in configura-tion and subservience to existence under precisely
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