212 NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Grant describes the moose of the Canadian Rockies as having 

 smaller antlers and being much darker in color than the moose 

 of eastern Canada. In point of habitat those animals also appear 

 more closely to approximate the Idaho animal, but reports as to 

 their size class them as distinctly larger than the mountain 

 moose of the United States. Certainly these two types approach 

 each other more closely than either one does the moose of the 

 east. 



It seems to me that the moose which I have given an account 

 of here dififers quite materially from the animal of the Bitter 

 Root ^Mountains (as described by Roosevelt in " The Wilderness 

 Hunter"), particularly in antler development, size, and food 

 selection, though not in its mountainous characteristics. 



I have no doubt but that the Idaho moose is in reality specifically 

 identical in origin with the eastern moose, but that this small 

 group of animals, now widely separated from others of their 

 kind, have inbred extensively, thus tending to accentuate any 

 peculiarities which may have existed in the immediate progenitors. 

 This fact and the manifestly unfavorable habitat have resulted in 

 a moose of smaller size and less perfect development in every re- 

 spect, and particularly in regard to the largely ornamental ant- 

 lers. I look upon the variation in the shape of the hoof as highly 

 characteristic of these animals, due doubtless to the altered 

 demands resulting from the widely different character of the 

 country over which they travel. That this modification is not 

 entirely the result of the hoof being worn down by contact with 

 the rock is apparently indicated by the fact that even on soft or 

 marshy turf the foot does not spread as do those of the eastern 

 moose, but is held much more compact. 



I do not think that this animal is entitled to sub-specific rank, 

 an opinion indorsed also by Mr. Grant, but it does seem to me 

 that it illustrates very well the alterations in even primary at- 

 tributes which the moose may undergo when forced to live for 

 a considerable time in isolated groups under more or less un- 

 favorable surrounding's. 



DESCRIPTION OF YOUNG BULL MOOSE. 



Apparent age three years, September 29///. 



The animal is a small, short, well-developed moose, evidently 

 about three years of age. It dififers from the Canadian moose 

 in certain particulars, especially as regards size and coloration. 



