HORNLESS CARIBOU.
[TO THE EDITOR OP THE " SPECTATOR."]
'Sin,—May I be allowed to say a word in reference to one point in your review of Mr. Hesketh Prichard's " Hunting Camps in Wood and Wilderness," appearing in your issue of April 1st? A propos of Lady Helen Graham's two illustrations, .of Newfoundland caribou, your reviewer writes that the artist: ." appears to have forgotten that in the reindeer or caribou both sexes normally bear antlers." This raises a question on: which I have long beer& anxious for information. In Norway the hornless female reindeer is undoubtedly the exception ; personally I have never come across one; though I have seen a'
• fair number of reindeer. I have, however, heard from native; -hunters that they are occasionally to be found : they are said' to be generally geld does. In Newfoundland, on the other ,hand; my •own experience goes very strongly in support of
Lady Helen Graham's pictures. On the Gander I found the, hornless female quite common ; not only geld does, but aninnkle with calves at heeL I have often seen several together, and though I cannot be precise as to the projiortion, I should say that most herds of a dozen contained one or more benilesa: females, and that a higher percentage Was by no means un-. common. It seems curious that two races of deer so closely' connected as the caribou of Newfoundland and the reindeer of Norway should differ so noticeably in this respect, and, it, would be worth while to collect more information on the sub- ject, as this difference lea, so far as I know, never been die-, cussed. I am told that in the barren giound caribou 4Of. Labrador, which certainly approximates much more closely'to the reindeer than to the Newfoundland type, the females, like those of the reindeer, almost always have horns. This dis-: Unction seems something more than a local variation ; it would btl interesting to know whether it has any Selo:16110 bearing.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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