. TliK HABITS OF MOOSE. 363 



foiu', and five yeai'S even two feet is not veire. In cows and 

 yearling bulls the bell is usun,lly small and delicate. In bidls a 

 few years older I have often seen it swinging like a tassel. It 

 is the old bulls with large fully-developed antlers — the bulls 

 usually sought by sportsmen — that have no more than a thick 

 stump of a bell. The Indians believe, as Mr. F. C. Selous suggests 

 in his ' Recent Hunting Trips in North America,' that it gets 

 torn oflP or dries up. Perhaps both may happen, or it may even 

 freeze ofi' during the winter. 



Except some of the yearlings and an old mother or so with 

 calves, the moose in the Rainy Lake District are all fat and sleek. 

 In September they fairly bulge. They seem lazy and satisfied, as 

 if they had found the true land of plenty. They are not too 

 indolent, however, for play — at least not the younger ones. Once, 

 in June, I saw two of them (young bulls, I think, though I was 

 too far off to be sure) frolicking on a sand beach. They cantered 

 and reared and stopped short and wheeled round exactly like 

 young horses, and at last, without warning, bolted into the bushes. 

 Again, in September I saw a half-grown grey calf cavorting on 

 the edge of a bay. A very fat cow and a huge glossy bull in full 

 armour stood ankle-deep in the water, gazing at each other in 

 stupid indecision. They seemed to be equally infatuated. The 

 little calf meantime enjoyed all manner of caprices, just as if he 

 considered his mother's new company a stimulating adventure for 

 himself. It reminded me of an exuberant boy tossing his hat in 

 the air. 



During the rutting-season also Ave once tried the efi"ect of the 

 much-discussed " calling " — an art almost unknown in this region. 

 It w^as a warm afternoon — about three o'clock on the 30th of 

 September. We had just paddled a hundred yards or so beyond a 

 portage, when we heard the low, languorous, lustful, two-noted 

 grunt of a bull. In spite of the sun in our eyes, we thought Ave 

 saAV him on the shore about three hundred yards to the right of us. 

 My Indian Avith unaided A^oice gave what seemed to me a perfect 

 imitation. Immediately, we heard the moose reply and wade out 

 into the water. The Indian I'epeated the call several times, and 

 the bull began to SAvim leisurely toward us. The call sounded so 

 easy that I could not resist trying myself. This seemed to make 

 no difference. The moose swam straight toward us. We then 

 kept still. When he Avas about one hundred feet away (a three- 

 year old bull, as we judged), he suddenly caught sight of us. With 

 evident surprise he turned and swam swiftly for shore. Whatever 

 else he had expected, I am sure he had had no thought of man — 

 even though my oavu call, at least, must have been seriously 

 defective. I should conclude, therefore, Avith Mr. Selous that, 

 where moose are unaccustomed to being deceived, a bull in a state 

 of frenzy may be attracted sometimes by other sounds than the 

 perfect call. 



The moose, like all creatures, sometimes makes fatal miscalcu- 

 lations. A real tragedy was recently reported to me in a letter from 



