THE EAR. 163 



The Ear. 



The ears of the deer have been ah-eady incidentally or di- 

 rectly spoken of and described with more or less particularity, bnt 

 many particulars remain to be noticed, which will enable us to 

 compare those of the different species, from which I trust we 

 shall derive much instruction. 



In many respects the Moose and the Caribou most resemble 

 each other, as for instance in their boreal habitat, their palmated 

 antlers, their hairy muzzles, and in the shape of the foot ; yet in 

 their ears they present the two extremes. Of all the deer fam- 

 ily the Moose shows the longest, the coarsest, and the ugliest ear, 

 almost as broad as it is long, and nearly thick enough for a plow- 

 share. On the other hand, the Caribou shows the least and the 

 shortest ear relatively, of all the family, though by no means 

 the finest or most delicate. While the Moose's ear may be four- 

 teen or fifteen inches long, I have never seen the ear of a Caribou 

 over four inches long. 



On a male Moose in my collection, said by experts to be four 

 years old, the ear is eleven inches long and seven inches broad. 

 It rises from the head nearly two inches in a cylindrical form, 

 before we reach the opening. It then varies but little in actual 

 breadth for nearly half its height, and thence tapers to the end. 

 It is thick and heavy in structure. On the outside it is covered 

 with a dense coat of short, soft hair of a grayish brown shade. 

 Inside the ear the hair is abundant, and is longer than on the 

 outside. The front lower edge of the ear is black. The rest of 

 the edge of the ear is a very dark brown. 



The ear of the Caribou is erect and is much less subject to lat- 

 eral motion than the larger ears ; and yet I cannot say that the 

 sense of hearing is at all impaired by the small ear, or that the 

 lai'ge ear makes that of the Moose much more acute. In both 

 the sense of hearing is very acute, as well as the sense of smell. 

 When the hunter sends off the Caribou by the breaking of a sin- 

 gle twig, he will regret that the scared animal was not a Moose ; 

 with the hope or belief that the latter could not have heard so 

 small an alarm ; but when on the other hand the Moose becomes 

 alarmed by the least accidental touch of a rifle while the holder 

 is passing a tree or a rock, and the Moose glides away and soon 

 starts into his long swinging trot, the hunter regrets that Provi- 

 dence had not given the Moose a smaller or less acute ear. 



The ear of the Caribou on the specimen in my collection, is 



