166 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



MOOSE- A Moose yard is commonly frequented throughout the 



winter by the moose-birds or Canada-jays (P. canadensis). 

 I cannnot guess why, unless the Moose, by tearing down and 

 rooting up logs and dead trees, exposes worms, etc., or perhaps 

 the parasitic insects in their hair furnish food for the bird. 

 There are several other cases of small birds associating with 

 large beasts, and in each the bird is believed to serve the beast 

 as watchman and get his return in parasitic insects as food. 



SPRING With the melting of the snow the necessity for yarding 



ceases, and the Moose family scatters. For what reason they 

 do so is not clear, because the young are not due to be born 

 for two or three months yet. Perhaps like men who have 

 been cooped up together in tight winter-quarters, or in a sailing 

 vessel, they are glad to get away from each other for a change. 

 The bulls go to some quiet spot, where their budding antlers 

 may have every chance to grow. They may have travelled a 

 dozen miles from their own range while seeking a mate in the 

 fall, but summer finds each individual back in the very swamp 

 and water-front that he has long considered his home. The 

 cows go to some familiar, secluded place, where they can nour- 

 ish the unborn calf, usually, however, accompanied at a 

 respectful distance by their young of the year before. 



It is very necessary in the economy of Nature that families 

 should break up. Inbreeding is ruinous, and many animals 

 have developed instincts that guard against this. I have made 

 many observations to see whether the active party in the break- 

 up is the parent or the young. Judging by humanity, it is 

 the young. Among human beings the maternal feeling us- 

 ually continues longer than the filial. But in most (possibly 

 in all) the lower animals it is the other way. The young 

 would keep on indefinitely demanding sustenance and com- 

 fort from the mother, if allowed. Who has not seen a cow, a 

 mare, a sheep, a cat, a dog, or a rabbit, driving away, with 

 harsh menace or even violence, the overgrown young one that 

 teases persistently for the sustenance of earlier years ? The 

 feeling that overpowers the maternal is, I think in most cases. 



