THE GAME ANIMALS OF CANADA 55 



Habits. — The moose is essentially a forest-dwelling animal, 

 frequenting the densest of our coniferous forests, and the 

 woods of birch and poplar. In the summer it resorts more 

 especially to the neighbourhood of swamps and secluded 

 lakes and pools, and here it wades deep into the water to 

 feed on the juicy leaves and stems of aquatic plants. It is 

 distinctly a browsing animal, as the structure of its head 

 and lips shows; and properly speaking it does not graze like 

 other members of the deer family. Its normal food con- 

 sists of the leaves, twigs, and bark of various trees, such as 

 spruce, hemlock, birch, alder, willow, maple, etc., and also 

 hchens. When deep snow covers the ground its movements 

 are more restricted, and the well-trodden paths and areas 

 that it forms in the snow constitute the well-known moose 

 ^■prards." 



^Kln the fall the "rutting" season begins when the bulls, 

 HPnich during the summer have roamed about in solitary 

 state, set forth to seek their mates. The deep guttural call 

 or bellow that he utters as a call may be answered by the 

 higher-toned reply of the cow, or a challenging grunt of a 

 rival. In the latter case a fierce combat may not infre- 

 quently follow, or the bull may be lured into an open spot 

 and to his death by the closely simulated call produced by 

 the birch horn of the hunter. At this time the bulls are 

 bold; they lose their shyness of the sunmier and, bold in 

 behaviour, they will sometimes fiercely attack an intruder, 

 as many a hunter has reason to know. The bull mates 

 with but a single cow, and is strictly monogamous. About 

 the end of May the young are born. The cow produces 

 one calf the first time, and usually two in subsequent years; 

 and, rarely, three are born. The young accompany the 

 mother during the first year, and during the winter the 

 moose family live together, the parents leaving the young 

 during the early spring. 

 The young bull moose grows his first pair of spike-like 



