342 



BRANCH CHORDATA 



The American moose (Al'ces america'nus) is the largest member of the 

 family (Fig. 278), living or extinct, and the male has the heaviest and widest 

 spreading antlers. 1 These are much flattened and expanded. The moose 

 has a long, thick, and rather prehensile upper lip, and browses upon the 

 bark, leaves, and twigs of certain trees, and upon moss and lichens. It is 

 as fond of wading and swimming as a schoolboy. It is very fleet, and can 

 pass over large fallen tree trunks or a 5-foot fence with ease. Its cry is a 

 long, resonant bawl. The calf is not spotted. The male has a long, orna- 

 mental strip of hair-covered skin, "the bell," which in the adult is sometimes 

 a foot long. The cow has neither antlers nor bell. The moose is easily 



Fig. 278. The Alaska moose (Alces americanus gigas). (Yearbook, U. S. 

 Dept. of Agriculture, 1907.) 



handled and may be trained to drive in harness, but it does not live long in 

 captivity except in forest preserves. During the stormy winter "they herd 

 together in sheltered spots in the forest, and, through moving about in a 

 small area, the snow is trodden down until they form a moose-yard" of 

 several miles in extent. The animals browse upon the twigs of adjacent 

 trees and bushes, and with their antlers keep their enemies, the wolves, at 

 bay. 



The so-called "musk-deer" differs from other Cervidee in the absence of 

 horns and in the presence of a gall-bladder, tusks, and the musk gland of the 



1 A pair of antlers from Alaska in the Field Columbian Museum has a 

 spread of 78^ inches, and, together with the skull, weighs 93} pounds. 



