138 THE DEER OF AMERICA. 
companies him in the chase of the Moose: ‘¢ The younger animals 
are darkest. As winter advances the hair grows longer and 
gradually fades, becoming more gray.” This fading out of the 
color to a sort of gray, with advancing age, is a fact so well 
recognized by all familiar with the animal, so far as I have been 
able to learn, that I do not deem it necessary to multiply quota- 
tions on the subject. That this is much more the case with some 
than with others, we may not question, any more than that indi- 
viduals of all ages differ very appreciably in color, which is ad- 
mitted by all. It is by far the darkest colored of all our deer, 
and it is probably the darkest of any known deer of any part of 
the world. It has always been recognized as much darker than 
the Swedish elk, with which, I am entirely satisfied by critical 
comparison, it is specifically identical. 
As I have expressed the opinion so confidently, that the Moose 
has two pelages in the year, while admitting that I have not had 
the opportunity to personally verify this fact, and have: not the 
direct evidence of any observer who has done so, it may be 
proper that I should group together some of the evidence which 
I think tends strongly to establish it. 
Let us again recur to what Dr. Gilpin says of the coat in 
September of the three-year old male Moose: “ The color of the 
bull was in the highest summer coating of deep glossy black and 
short as a well-groomed horse.” Now this was at a time when 
the other species of deer have just discarded the summer coat and 
the new winter garb is just fairly developed. Had our author 
seen him a month earlier, I am very sure he would have found 
him less attractive, in a shabby fawn-colored summer dress, 
already preparing to give place to the one described. 
At the time the Doctor wrote this description, his attention had 
not been called to this second pelage of the Moose, nor do I any- 
where find a direct examination of the subject by any author, 
nor, so far as I know, have the hunters taken particular note of 
it. Hardy says: “ His coat now lies close, with a gloss reflect- 
ing the sun’s rays like that of a well-groomed horse.” I find 
abundant evidence that the Moose has a new coat in the fall in 
many observations, like the above. Even without these, analogy 
tells us that such must be the,case, and we should require the 
strongest evidence to dispute her teachings. The fact that the 
Moose is out of season and is never hunted when in the summer 
coat, —that then they are without their antlers, and seek the 
deepest seclusion, — explains how it is that they are rarely seen 
