HABIT AND DOMESTICATION. 279 



vacy is disturbed by a rival, his fierceness and rage are at once 

 kindled into a fury, and he goes to meet the foe beyond the pre- 

 cinct of his lair. In his private retreat he paws up the soft, 

 moist earth till he makes a considerable excavation, in which he 

 wallows, having sprinkled it with his urine, and which becomes 

 scented with a very powerful odor which is said to be so offen- 

 sive that none but an Indian cares to encounter it. It is interest- 

 ing to observe how exactly the habits of his European congener 

 correspond with those of the Moose in this extraordinary feature. 

 Mr. Lloyd says : " Although just prior to the rutting season the 

 males wander greatly in search of mates, yet as soon as they have 

 found a partner the pair retire together to a dense brake, gener- 

 ally consisting of fir or spruce, in the Aviidest recesses of the for- 

 est. Here the male forms a gross or cavity in the ground, which 

 he very plentifully besprinkles with urine, and hence the term 

 gross. It is said that for some three Aveeks, during which the 

 rutting season continues, the pair confine themselves to the imme- 

 diate vicinity of the spot, to within a space, indeed, of some few 

 feet in diameter, which spot of their own accord, they will on no 

 account desert ; and even should they be scared from thence by 

 people or dogs, they will, as soon as the pursuit has ceased, return 

 to it again. Several pair of elk are sometimes found near to the 

 gross, the selection of which is frequently made known by the 

 males scoring the small trees in the vicinity with their horns, or 

 it may be in twisting them in the manner of withs." ^ Here is 

 an exact correspondence in habit with the Moose in a very ex- 

 traordinary disposition, Avhich is something more than acciden- 

 tal, occurring with animals separated by a great ocean, which of 

 itself would suggest a near relationship. We are even more sur- 

 prised at the detail than at the monogamic habit itself, still 

 this is exceedingly exceptional among quadrupeds, although quite 

 common among birds. This habit is said to be sometimes ob- 

 served among the monkey tribes, and there is one other species 

 of deer, in which it is more marked than in O. alces, that is 

 the roe-deer of Europe, where the male and female, once having 

 made their selection, continue constant to each other through life, 

 ever associating together, eschewing the society of all others 

 even of their own kind, except their own offspring, to the care of 

 which both parents devote themselves, as we have seen in another 

 place. But to return to the Moose. 



During this connubial period the male Moose becomes emaci- 



1 Scandinavian Adventures, by L. Lloyd, 2d London ed., 1854, vol. ii., p. 100. 



