1903.] THE ELK IN NORWAY. 139 
the only shrubby plants. When found in such situations, they 
may be stalked in exactly the same way as red deer, but when 
disturbed usually make for the shelter of the forest ; and even on 
the fjeld they nearly always lie in or close to a small grove of 
dwart birch, and are in consequence not so easy to find with the 
telescope as red deer. 
The Elk is supposed to be monogamous, and I have never seen 
more than one cow in company with a bull during the rutting- 
season; but Iam assured by a Lapp, whose knowledge of their 
habits is very great, that in districts where cows are more 
numerous than bulls, the older bulls will change their mates two 
or three times during the season. This seems to be confirmed by 
the fact, which I have often noticed, that at the end of September, 
when the rutting-season is approaching its height, cows are often 
found without bulls, and the tracks of solitary bulls are found, 
travelling presumably in search of fresh cows. 
Col. Walker, of Tykillen, Co. Wexford, who has had great experi- 
ence in Elk- hunting, relates the following event in a letter to me :— 
“Thomas and I saw a magnificent bull with a splendid head in 
company with a cow and calf ; they were quite in the open on the 
edge of a small lake about half a mile from us. 
“T noticed that whenever the bull went to the cow she ran at 
him, and butted him very hard in the ribs; he then each time ran 
from her, and browsed on the trees. Thomas then told me that 
it would be useless to stalk this bull as he would be gone in a few 
minutes. His story was that the bull only remains with the cow 
for three days, and then she beats him off, and he has to go and find 
another. Thomas had hardly done telling me this when the bull 
made his last appeal to the cow. She gave him a rough reception, 
and he at once started off at a fast trot. She remained grazing, 
and we could see the bull going away very fast for nearly two miles 
over a long stretch of open mountain, which took him across our 
boundary. We never saw this bull again.” 
Another proof of their polygamous habit is that on such ground 
as that on which I hunted last year, where during eight years only 
one cow has been killed for every five or six pale ‘and where in 
consequence the cows were far more numerous, I found no more 
barren cows than in districts hunted by Norwegians only, where 
more cows than bulls had been killed. 
A point upon which I have never been able to get any certain 
information in Norway is whether the sexes attract each other 
by calling at night, as the American Moose do. The art of calling 
is unknown to Scandinavian hunters so far as I can learn, though 
it is said to be practised in North Russia and Kurland. The 
weather in Norway is usually so wet and stormy at the end of 
September that there is no inducement to lie out in the forest ; 
and though I have spent many nights in remotely situated huts 
and seters, and have listened at dark and daylight, I have never 
heard such a call asis made by the Moose. The cows do, however, 
call to their calves, and I have heard bulls uttering a low grunting 
