THE ALCINE DEER OF THE OLD AND NEW WORLDS. 67 



group of prongs projecting forwards, of a dark reddish 

 brown. 



At this season the bulls fight desperately. Backed 

 by the immense and compact neck, the collision of the 

 antlers of two large rivals is heard on a still autumnal 

 night, like the report of a gun. If the season is young, 

 the palm of the horn is often pierced by the tines of the 

 adversary, and I have picked up broken fragments of 

 tines where a fight has occurred. Though at other 

 seasons they rarely utter a sound, where moose are plen- 

 tiful they may be heard all day and night. The cows 

 utter a prolonged and strangely-wild call, which is imi- 

 tated by the Indian hunter through a trumpet of rolled- 

 up birch-bark to allure the male. The bull emits several 

 sounds. Travelling through the woods in quest of a 

 mate, he is constantly "talking," as the Indians say, 

 giving out a suppressed guttural sound — quoh ! quoh ! 

 — which becomes much sharper and more like a bellow 

 when he hears a distant cow. Sometimes he bellows in 

 rapid succession ; but when approaching the neighbour- 

 hood of the forest where he has heard the call of the cow 

 moose, and for which he makes a bee line at first, he 

 becomes much more cautious, speaking more slowly, con- 

 stantly stopping to listen, and often finally making a long 

 noiseless detour of the neighbourhood, so as to come up 

 from the windward, by which means he can readily 

 detect the presence of lurking danger These latter 

 cautious manoeuvres on the part of the moose are, how- 

 ever, more frequently exercised in districts where they 

 are much hunted ; in their less accessible retreats the old 

 bulls will often rush up to the spot without hesitation. 

 The suspicious and angry bull will often go into a thick 



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