Page:Mammalia (Beddard).djvu/318

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trampled down, and the animal contents itself with browsing upon the adjacent stems. The well-trampled ground gives an easy footing, and by his powerful horns the great stag is able to keep his enemies at bay.

Fig. 156.—Moose. Alces machlis. × 120.

Rangifer tarandus, the Reindeer, is unique among Deer by reason of the fact that both sexes wear antlers. These antlers are palmated. The brow tine and the next or bez tine are also palmated and are directed forwards and a little downwards. The young are unspotted. The pelage alters in winter. Like the Moose, the Reindeer is circumpolar. As is well known, during the Pleistocene period the Reindeer extended its range as far as the South of France. Even in the historic period it is said to have been hunted in Caithness.

Reindeer, like so many other particularly Arctic animals, have regular migrations. In Spitzbergen, for instance, the animal migrates in the summer to the inland region of the island, and in