A Question for Naturalists

Abstract

MR. PAUL DU CHAILLU, in his “Land of the Midnight Sun,” tells us that “the time of dropping the horns in a herd (of reindeer) varies from March to May.” This may be true as regards the young males up to two or three years of age, and of the does, but it is questionable as regards the full-grown males. If my memory serves me correctly, the full-grown bucks brought to this country with some Lapps a year or two ago, and exhibited at the Aquarium, shed their horns in December or January. The experience of a gentleman—one of the highest authorities in such matters—who holds a most important position at the Zoological Gardens, supports my view. Can the Lapps have two kinds of reindeer which shed their horns at different seasons? I know that the full-grown male reindeer of the barren grounds of America drop their horns in the latter part of November and in December (which does away with the erroneous idea that this animal used the broad brow antler as a shovel for clearing away the snow so as to reach his food); the young buck of two or three years retains his horns until spring, and the full-grown female does not shed her horns until May or June, usually after having dropped her calf.