80 THE DEER FAMILY 



Kaska Indians in northwest British Columbia (among 

 the best moose-hunters in America), or pounding the 

 willows with a dry shoulder-blade of the animal by the 

 Liard River Indians, will serve exactly the same pur- 

 pose, or almost any other unusual noise would bring 

 the bull within the sound just as readily. 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 ? " * 



Mr. Caspar Whitney, the editor of Outing, says that 

 Mr. Stone's opinion on this subject differs from that of 

 experienced hunters. " There is convincing evidence 

 that the bull is deceived into believing the horn to be 

 the call of the cow." And he adds: "The cow's call 

 is quite familiar to those who have had much calling 

 experience in the Maine woods." 



No doctors at a bedside, no court of last resort, ever 

 split more evenly than these sportsmen. Both furnish 

 evidence to support their opinions ; but I believe Mr. 

 Whitney is right. The consensus of opinion seems to 

 support him. 



There can be no doubt that the question is full of 

 difficulties quite equal to those which have disturbed 

 the noted psychologists. We must first determine 

 what is in Mr. Bull's mind — what he thinks. 



The fact that moose respond to the pounding of the 



* "The Deer Family." 



