THE WAPITI 263 



seek them. But the bulls do not run the cows as among 

 the smaller deer the bucks run the does. The time of 

 the beginning of the rut varies in different places, but it 

 usually takes place in September, about a month earlier 

 than that of the deer in the same locality. The necks 

 of the bulls swell and they challenge incessantly, for, un- 

 like the smaller deer, they are very noisy. Their love and 

 war calls, when heard at a little distance amid the moun- 

 tains, have a most musical sound. Frontiersmen usually 

 speak of their call as " whistling," which is not an ap- 

 propriate term. The call may be given in a treble or in 

 a bass, but usually consists of two or three bars, first rising 

 and then falling, followed by a succession of grunts. The 

 grunts can only be heard when close up. There can 

 be no grander or more attractive chorus than the chal- 

 lenging of a number of wapiti bulls when two great herds 

 happen to approach one another under the moonlight or 

 in the early dawn. The pealing notes echo through the 

 dark valleys as if from silver bugles, and the air is filled 

 with the wild music. Where little molested the wapiti 

 challenge all day long. 



They can be easiest hunted during the rut, the hunter 

 placing them, and working up to them, by the sound 

 alone. The bulls are excessively truculent and pugna- 

 cious. Each big one gathers a herd of cows about him 

 and drives all possible rivals away from his immediate 

 neighborhood, although sometimes spike bulls are al- 

 lowed to remain with the herd. Where wapiti are very 

 abundant, however, many of these herds may join to- 

 gether and become partially welded into a mass that may 



