COAT AND COLOR. 139 



when in that unattractive summer suit. Naturalists, studying 

 this animal, have not made this particuhir point a subject of in- 

 quiry, and so their attention lias not been directed to the facts, 

 even when seen, which would serve to elucidate it. We may see 

 a thousand things withoiit obseiwing them, if we do not appre- 

 ciate their importance. We see them and pass them by in for- 

 getfulness, unless we see in them some significance. Even so ac- 

 curate an observer and accomplished a naturalist as Dr. Gilpin, 

 lived among the Moose, as we may say, for forty years, without 

 his attention being directed to this particular branch of the sub- 

 ject. 



In answer to my inquiries in reference to two pelages of the 

 moose and the caribou, Mr. Robert Morrow, of Halifax, writes 

 me : " They have a summer and a winter coat, but that they 

 shed it more than once a year I cannot say. The Indians say 

 no, but it is not probable that their attention has been drawn to 

 the subject. Dr. Gilpin thinks, reasoning from analogy, that 

 they partially shed their coat in the latter part of the summer, 

 in which case the coat is shed spring and fall." 



When I remember the difficulty I had to detect the shedding 

 of the coat in the fall by the elk, and that after years of observa- 

 tion with the best opportunities, I was still of opinion that he had 

 but one pelage in the year, I can appreciate how little reliance 

 can be placed on the negative conclusions of even the Indians, 

 who, as Mr. Morrow suggests, probably never thought of the 

 subject. The observer who detected a clear and well-defined line 

 between lighter and darker shades along the side of the caribou, 

 saw the same thing, though more distinctly, that first led me to 

 discover the change of coat at the end of summer on the elk. 



The mule deer resembles the Moose most in the black color of 

 the new winter coat, but it turns to gray much sooner than the 

 black of the Moose fades to the grayish white, which it assumes 

 during the winter or towards the spring. I again quote from 

 Gilpin : " The winter coating (of the Moose) is formed of long 

 hair so stiff as to stand bristly outward, and as each hair is lead 

 colored at base, grayish-white in the middle, and black at top, 

 the Avhole animal has a grayish appearance. The crest loses its 

 yellowisli wash, and the hair on the cheeks and neck is both 

 darker and shaggier than on the body. There is still a yellowish 

 brown wash on the muffer and forehead, and the ears are brown- 

 ish fawn. The beautiful yellow fawn and black stripes of the 

 legs disappear, and mixed gray cover them, hiding the abrupt 



