takes iihout a ton of brush and weeds to produce 

 forty pounds of solid horn. These weapons the moose 

 carries on his head five or six months. He fights 

 his rivals with them during the short mating 

 season ; then he sheds them and in the following 

 spring grows a new pair. The new antlers are cov- 

 ered with a velvety skin, they are filled with blood 

 vessels, and are so sensitive that they even feel the 

 bite of a mosquito. In fall the skin becomes lifeless 

 and the moose brushes it off by rubbing the antlers 

 against trees and bushes, and now he is ready for 

 another season of battles. 



The legs of the moose are so long that they suggest 

 stilts. One day I watched a large moose cow for 

 nearly an hour feeding in a bog on the edge of a 

 lake. A man could not have walked there; cattle or 

 horses would have been hopelessly mired; not so the 

 stilt-legged moose. In mud four to five feet deep, she 

 walked about with perfect ease, reaching out with 1 ! 

 big muzzle for such plants as she liked. 



Last summer in July, my wife and I approached 

 within fifty feet of a large black cow, who had two 

 Tine brown calves with her. One of the calves saw 

 us first and uttered a peculiar low nasal squeal, which 

 attracted the attention of the mother. For a little 

 while all three stood and looked at us; then, not at 

 all alarmed, they walked leisurely out of the lake into 



1 lie WOods. 



Moose are difficult to keep in captivity. But I 

 knew of one kept at Chippewa Falls, AY is., until it 

 was about three years old. The animal was fed on 

 brush, and during the winter on brush hay. In their 



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