The Moose 311 



serve exactly the same purpose ; or almost any 

 other unusual noise would bring the bull within 

 the sound just as readily. 1 There is no animal in 

 the world whose sense of hearing is more acute, 

 and no hunter with any knowledge of the moose 

 will call it stupid; yet hunters tell how their guide 

 brought up a bull by imitating the call of a cow. 

 How many of these hunters ever heard the call 

 of a cow moose to give them authority to decide 

 how perfectly the birch-bark horn in the hands of 

 their guide imitated the cow's call. 1 



The moose inherits faculties for reasoning the 

 few simple things that ordinarily come to his life, 

 and along with many other animals is capable of 

 detecting the slightest variation in sound. Not 

 only do animals recognize the cry of their own 

 kind, but the cry of an individual. To know 

 animals requires something more than careless 

 observation. One must study them long and 

 earnestly, and when we do this we can find rea- 

 sons for everything they do. I want no better 

 comparison than I can find in the seals. On the 

 Pribilof Islands, during the seal breeding season, 

 one hundred thousand puppies are congregated 

 at one time and left by their mothers who go to 

 sea in search of food, often being gone two and 



1 This totally disagrees with abundant evidence to the contrary. 

 — Editor. 



2 The cow's call is quite familiar to those who have had much 

 calling experience in the Maine woods. — Editor. 



