ReirEdeer

[Scand. from Rappish.] A kind of deer with branching horns found in the extreme north parts of Europe and America. Reindeer are gregarious and herd together. The full-grown bucks shed their horns. The horns of the female reindeer are retained during the win¬ ter. The reindeer feeds on the lichen that thickly carpets barren lands in the subarctic regions. The common European reindeer is domesticated in Rapland. Rap landers depend on it for its milk, and as a beast of burden, or to draw sledges over the snow. When the path is good and not too hilly, the reindeer can travel 100 miles a day. Their feet are well suited for walking on snow, owing to the manner in which the hoofs separate in treading, and to the long, coarse hair growing between the hoofs. The Siberian reindeer is larger than that of Rapland. The reindeer of North America are the cariboo or woodland reindeer, found in Canada and Maine, enables it to cling to foreign bodies. This is a modification of the dorsal fin, which becomes a flattened disk covering the top of the head, and acts as a sucker. Fables have arisen to the effect that this fish could arrest the course of a ship to which it attached itself. The species are from 12 to 20 inches long.