IN THE FAR WEST. 209 



only on moonlight nights during the running season, for the 

 animals will not respond to it in the day-time, and it would be 

 useless to try it on dark nights, as they could not be seen in the 

 gloomy forest at any distance, large as they are. The weather 

 ought also to be favourable, as the " call " is then heard more 

 readily, and the chances of getting a good shot are greater. 

 The males respond to it more promptly in the earlier than in 

 the later portion of the season, and the young are more easily 

 inveigled than the adults, whose experience has taught them 

 that " all that glitters is not gold." The unsophisticated 

 youngsters are sometimes lured within range by merely 

 striking a tree with an axe or a rifle ; but no old one can be 

 deceived by such a simple device. 



The short neck, long fore-legs, and elongated prehensile lip 

 prove that the moose is a browser and not a grazer ; hence we 

 find it only in extensive forests, where it can obtain shelter 

 and a variety of choice food. It is very fond of dainty shrubs 

 and the tender shoots of young trees, but its favourite 

 pabulum is the maple, which is, on this account, known as 

 moose-wood in portions of Canada and the United States. 

 Being naturally timid and wary, the moose frequents the 

 deepest recesses of the forest, where even the most light- 

 footed hunter can hardly approach it undetected, for its huge 

 ears and nostrils warn it instantly of danger. One would scarcely 

 credit, without proof, the distance to which it can wind or 

 hear a person in the woods ; and this makes stalking it a 

 laborious, and, too often, an unsuccessful enterprise. The 

 most experienced hunter cannot circumvent it under ordinary 

 circumstances, for should he crush a dead stick under foot, 

 brush against decayed leaves or branches so as to rustle them, 

 or be to the windward, he could not hope to capture it unless 

 he ran it down in the snow. Its sight is by no means acute, 

 and it cannot compete with any of its congeners in this 

 characteristic. This is evidently due to the dense and gloom v 

 haunts which it generally frequents, and where intensity of 

 vision would be useless ; but this defect is atoned for by such 

 keenness of nose and ear that its loss must be little felt. 



AVhen browsing, the animal makes a very devious path that 



