178 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



chance, and is distinguished first by her fine condition; second, 

 the absence of calf. Roderick MacFarlane writes : ^^ *' Hunters 

 assert that hermaphrodite and barren females are sometimes 

 met with, and that these imperfect examples almost invariably 

 attain a larger size and heavier weight than their fertile kin- 

 dred." 



FOOD The food of the Moose is browse, twigs, and leaves of 



many hard woods, their particular favourite being moosewood 

 or striped maple. Yet they do eat grass, as I have many times 

 witnessed, and once found on dissection that the stomach 

 contents were half grass. They do not always kneel for it, 

 as is stated, but often eat like a horse, merely bending their 

 necks if the grass is high, or adopting an inelegant giraffe-like 

 straddle if it be low (see Plate VIII). Although they feed 

 chiefly on twigs and bark in winter, I observed that about 

 Carberry they devoured quantities of equisetum, or joint-grass, 

 which sticks up through the snow. 



" Moose rise and feed at dawn. About sunrise they again 

 lie down to chew the cud or sleep till ten or eleven o'clock. 

 Then they feed till two o'clock in the afternoon, again lie down 

 till four or five o'clock, then feed till dusk, when they lie down 

 for the night.'; (J. G. Lockhart.f 



STRANGE Though the least gregarious of our Deer, the Moose is 



HABITS o o y 



not without social amusements. Their yarding is a friendly 

 gathering for the enjoyment and benefits of each other's 

 society and they have also a weird performance that seems to be 

 as contagious and psychologically deep-rooted as the "voodoo 

 dance." This I have often heard of, but never seen. At 

 certain seasons, more especially in high winds, these animals, 

 I am told by many hunters, "go crazy," coursing around like 

 dogs playing tag, chasing each other without regard to danger 

 from their natural enemies, and yet apparently without any sex 

 impulse. At such times they are easily approached and shot. 



•* Mam. N. W. Ter., Proc. U. S. N. M., 1905, pp. 678-9. 

 ^* Proc. U. S. N. M., Vol. XIII, No. 827, p. 308. 



