300 Deer and Antelope of North America 



than of all the rest of its anatomy. It is not that 

 they are really the most important feature of the 

 animal, but because few entire specimens have 

 ever been taken by naturalists ; and the interest 

 of the average sportsman centres in the head of 

 antlers. I have seen a great many heads from 

 Lower Canada and Maine, the Liard, the Mac- 

 kenzie, and the Yukon rivers, and the Kenai 

 Peninsula, and there is no question that the 

 antlers grown by the moose of the Kenai are not 

 only very much the largest in America but of dis- 

 tinctive character. The spread is greater, the 

 palmation wider, and the general contour very 

 different from those observed from any other 

 locality. 



Nine heads secured on the Kenai, fall of 1900, 

 ranged in spread from fifty-six to seventy-four 

 inches. The average spread of the nine heads 

 was slightly above sixty-five inches. A head 

 from Maine or Lower Canada above sixty inches 

 in spread is rare, and what might be considered 

 ten good heads would probably average in width 

 but slightly over fifty inches. The antlers lose 

 the velvet the last of August and the first of 

 September. Adult males shed their antlers the 

 latter part of December, but young males usually 

 carry theirs from thirty to sixty days later, and I 

 have heard of instances where they were retained 

 until the first of April, but such cases must be 

 very rare. 



