Moose 173 



one of my guides always contended that the cow said plainly, 

 'Who are you?' I doubt if the first and last syllables can 

 be heard at any great distance, and thus the call often seems 

 to consist of one syllable." 



Fred. Talcott, writing of the Moose in Roger Williams 

 Park, tells how he imitated the Moose defiance on a call-horn 

 not far from the park. 



"At the first sound of the horn the bull sprang to his feet, 

 giving his answer and darting toward me, and the cow 

 answered with the long call. I thought also the calf answered, 

 but of this, in the excitement and noise, I could not be sure. 

 At the second sound of the note the bull answered again, and 

 without an instant's hesitation charged against the fence in the 

 greatest fury. As he came on his head was lowered, bringing 

 his antlers about on a line with his shoulders. 



**At other times, both day and evening, I tried to deceive 

 him, but without success. The cow would repeatedly answer, 

 always with a short call, quite diff^erent from the long call 

 imitated to call the Moose of the wild woods. A number of 

 difi^erent notes this cow used, usually in a tone that could be 

 heard only a short distance."" 



As this was after the rutting season, it is of unusual interest, 

 and the patriarch is to be congratulated on the loyal sympathy 

 of his family. 



Flint states also that he found the Moose calling and 

 coming from the middle of September to the end of October — 

 six weeks, that is, much longer than the rut. To this 1 may 

 add that in Manitoba, in 1884, I heard a Moose call as late as 

 December 6. 



Madison Grant says that "in Nova Scotia it seems to be a 

 well-authenticated fact that Bear have been shot by moose- 

 callers, the Bear, apparently, sneaking up to seize the supposed 

 cow."^^ 



Accounts of moose-calling are very various and indeed con- 

 flicting. One man says, "You must imitate the call of the bull 



" Forest and Stream, March 25, 1899, p. 224. 



^* Moose, 7th Ann. Rep. N. Y. S., F. F. G. Com., 1903, p. 230. 



