130 JVays of Wood Folk. 



trumpet-shaped ears are marvelously acute. Only 

 absolute silence on the hunter's part can insure 

 success. 



Another condition cjuite as essential is moonlight. 

 The moose sometimes calls just before dusk and just 

 before sunrise ; but the bull is more wary at such 

 times, and very loth to show himself in the open. 

 Night diminishes his extreme caution, and unless he 

 has been hunted he responds more readily. Only a 

 bright moonlight can give any accuracy to a rifle- 

 shot. To attempt it by starlight would result simply 

 in frightening the game, or possibly running into 

 danger. 



By far the best place for calling, if one is in a 

 moose country, is from a canoe on some cjuiet lake 

 or river. A spot is selected midway between two 

 open shores, near together if possible. On whichever 

 side the bull answers, the canoe is backed silently 

 away into the shadow against the opposite bank ; 

 and there the hunters crouch motionless till their 

 game shows himself clearly in the moonlight on the 

 open shore. 



If there is no water in the immediate vicinity of 

 the hunting ground, then a thicket in the midst of an 

 open spot is the place to call. Such spots are found 

 only about the barrens, which are treeless plains scat- 

 tered here and there throughout the great northern 



