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 wildest 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 weeks, 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, which 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 C. 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. 
