272 BULLETIN NO. VII. 
the male as to make it safe, perhaps, to refer those instances 
of its presence in the female to similar causes, as the inheri- 
tance of other sexual characters by members of the opposite 
sex. This pendulous flap of the skin of the throat seems to 
serve simply a purpose, which, from the paucity of our vocab- 
ulary, we must term ornament, though by no means implying 
by this that it is designed merely to gratify the taste of wearer 
or viewer. 
The nearest existing relative of the moose is the elk of 
Northern Europe. Unfortunately, by one of those frequent 
transpositions in popular nomenclature, the name elk has in 
this country been applied to the only other large deer-like ani- 
mal, though the latter is hardly specifically distinct from the 
European stag. Although subject to a wide range of variation 
the species under consideration present in a comprehensive 
view appreciable distinctions. While, therefore, there can be 
no doubt of their common origin and close relationship, the 
decision of the question of specific identity must depend very 
largely upon theoretical considerations or individual judgment. 
The American moose is larger and of a darker color than the 
European species, and certain differencesin the form and ex- 
pansion of the antlers are obvious, while the more recondite 
(and theoretically more valuable) distinctions seem never to . 
have been carefully studied. The configuration of the cra- 
nium varies too much in all large mammals and especially in 
those in which one sex bears horns, and hence more or less of 
cross inheritance of sexual characters is to be expected, to 
afford instructive distinctions unless very careful elimination 
of all variants is made upon the basis of very large and repre- 
sentative collections. 
The original habitat of the moose extended entirely across 
the continent between the fortieth and seventieth parallels, 
approximately in appropriate localities: The treeless regions 
were, of course, always avoided by an animal whose chief sus- 
tenance is afforded by leaves and bark. A few specimens of 
this noble animal still may remain in the inaccessible regions 
of Northern. Minnesota, but the time is not far distant when it 
will have deserted the territory of the United States forever. 
The moose is at home in dense thickets, such as are usually 
found about the swamps and shallow lakes at the head waters 
of northern streams. The long legs and deeply cleft hoofs 
adapt the animal to such a habitat, while the short neck and 
prehensile snout sufficiently indicate the impossibility of its 
