aving now sufficient strength to accompany them, and follow the
banks of George's River until they meet the bucks, when the rutting
season commences, in the month of October; the whole then proceed
together, through the interior, to the place whence they came. In the
same manner, I have been informed, the deer perform their migratory
circuits everywhere; observing the same order on their march,
following nearly the same route unless prevented by accidental
circumstances, and observing much the same periods of arrival and
departure.

The colour of the rein-deer is uniformly the same, presenting no
variety of "spotted black and red." In summer it is a very dark grey,
approaching to black, and light grey in winter. The colour of the doe
is of a darker shade than that of the buck, whose breast is perfectly
white in winter. Individuals are seen of a white colour at all seasons
of the year. The bucks shed their antlers in the month of December;
the does in the month of January. A few bucks are sometimes to be
met with who roam about apart from the larger herds, and are in prime
condition both in summer and winter. These _solitaires_ are said to be
unsuccessful candidates for the favours of the does, who, having
been worsted by their more powerful rivals in _contentione amoris_,
withdraw from the community, and assuming the cowl, ever after eschew
female society; an opinion which their good condition at all seasons
seems to corroborate.

The rein-deer is subject to greater annoyance from flies than any
other animal in the creation; neither change of season nor situation
exempts them from this torture. Their great persecutor is a species
of gad-fly, (_oestries tarandi_,) that hovers around them in clouds
during summer, and makes them the instruments of their own torture
throughout the year. The fly, after piercing the skin of the deer,
deposits its eggs between the outer and inner skin, where they are
hatched by the heat of the animal's body. In the month of March, the
chrysalides burst through the skin, and drop on the ground, when they
may be seen crawling in immense numbers along the deer paths as they
pass from west to east.

The only birds observed in winter are grouse, ptarmigan, a small
species of wood-pecker, butcher-bird, and the diminutive tomtit. We
are visited in summer by swans, geese, ducks, eagles, hawks, ravens,
owls, robins, and swallows. The eider-duck, so much prized for its
down, is found in considerable