206 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



THE HABITS OF THE MOOSE IN THE FAR NORTH 



OF BRITISH AMERICA. 



By J. G. Lockhakt.* 



The Moose is common over the whole country as far north 

 as the borders of the barren grounds. In the valley of the Yukon, 

 and on the west side of the Kocky Mountains, Moose are par- 

 ticularly numerous, and continue so westward to Behring Strait. 

 There are particular localities where Moose are rarely, if ever, 

 seen. For instance, so far as I have heard, they never 

 approach the shores of Hudson's Bay near York factory. They 

 are very rarely killed in the vicinity of Fort Rae, although 

 they are quite numerous at Big Island and along this side of 

 the lake. 



The females have one or two young at a time. They have 

 sometimes, but very rarely, been killed with three young inside ; 

 but no one, Indian or white, that I have known, ever saw a female 

 followed by three sucklings or yearlings. For this I have never 

 heard a reason assigned. Since the female has four teats giving 

 milk, one would suppose that she might suckle as many as three 

 young. 



The food of the Moose consists of willows, small birch-trees, 

 and shrubs, and also of grass and hay. Sometimes two or three 

 will pass an entire winter near certain small lakes or large grassy 

 swamps, in which they feed, scraping off the snow with their feet. 

 In winter, when no water is to be had, they eat snow freely. In 

 winter also the females are most sought after, because they are 

 the fattest. In summer the male is best for the same reason. 



* From the ' Proceedings of the U.S. National Museum,' vol. xiii. (1890). 

 The manuscript of this paper was received from Mr. Lockhart in 1865, while 

 he was an officer of the Hudson's Bay Company, of London, and has been 

 preserved in the archives of the Smithsonian Institution. Between 1860 

 and 1870 Mr. Lockhart made many valuable contributions to the National 

 Museum, including insects, birds, mammals, and fossils from Mackenzie 

 River, Alaska, Great Slave Lake, and Hudson Bay Territory. For more 

 than thirty years the Hudson Bay Company has zealously co-operated with 

 the Smithsonian Institution in increasing the ethnological and natural- 

 history collections of the National Museum. The objects thus received from 

 Mr. Robert MacFarlane, Mr. Lockhart, and other agents of the Company, 

 have added greatly to our scientific knowledge of British North America. 



