SCANDINAVIAN REINDEER.
The spreading hoofs enable the reindeer to traverse snow and swamps without sinking.
Reindeer are distinguished from all other kinds of deer by the fact that antlers are borne by both males and females. The antlers, as may be seen by the illustration, differ materially from those of the red deer, elk, and other species; the brow-tines, especially, are often much palmated. These animals are heavily built, short-legged, and, as beseems dwellers in a snowy habitat, provided with round, short, and spreading hoofs. For ages reindeer have been domesticated by the Lapps of Scandinavia, the Samoyeds, and other primitive races of Northern Europe and Asia. Trained to harness, and drawing a sledge, they traverse long distances, while their milk, flesh, and hides are of great importance to the people who keep them. The Common or Scandinavian Reindeer ranges from Norway through Northern Europe into Asia, though how far eastward is not yet accurately determined. It is interesting to note that these animals were once denizens of Britain, and so lately as the twelfth century the Jarls of Orkney are believed to have been in the habit of crossing to the mainland for the purpose of hunting them in the wilds of Caithness. Wild reindeer are still to be found in the remoter parts of Norway, though, from much persecution, they are becoming comparatively scarce in most parts of the country.
By permission of the New York Zoological Society.
WOODLAND CARIBOU.
This specimen has shed its horns, which are of the general type of those of the Scandinavian race.
Mr. Abel Chapman, in his "Wild Norway," gives some excellent accounts of sport with these fine deer. Speaking of a good herd of twenty-one, discovered in Ryfylke, he says: "Most of the deer were lying down, but both the big stags stood upright in dreamy, inert postures.... I now fully realised what a truly magnificent animal I had before me. Both in body and horn he was a giant, and his coat was no less remarkable; the neck was pure white, and beneath it a shaggy mane hung down a foot in length. This white neck was set off by the dark head in front and the rich glossy brown of his robe behind. Besides this the contrasting black and white bars on flanks and stern were conspicuously clean-cut and defined, and the long and massive antlers showed a splendid recurved sweep, surmounted by branch-like tines, all clean." For three long, agonising hours the stalker watched this noble prize, and then one of those lucky chances which occasionally gladden the hunter's heart occurred, and the reindeer approached within a hundred yards. "Half-a-dozen forward steps, and his white neck and dark shoulder were beautifully exposed. Already, ere his head had appeared, the rifle had been shifted over, and now the foresight dwelt lovingly on a thrice-refined aim. The .450 bullet struck to an inch, just where the shaggy mane joined the brown shoulder. The beast winced all over, but neither moved nor fell. A moment's survey, and I knew by the swaying of his head that he was mine." The weight of this big reindeer stag was estimated at 450 lbs., or 32 stone. He carried twenty-five points to his antlers, which measured 51 inches in extreme length.
Photo by the Duchess of Bedford] [Woburn Abbey.