TRAITS AND HABITS OF THE MOOSE 85 



cording to Andrew J. Stone a calf a week old, 

 weighing sixty-five pounds, will stand thirty-three 

 inches high at the shoulders; the same calf at five 

 months will be about sixty-seven inches high, and 

 weigh six hundred pounds. But most moose at 

 five months old are smaller than this. 



Calves usually remain with their mother until 

 their little half-brothers or half-sisters are born, 

 and a yearling bull will often remain in the com- 

 pany of his mother — or not far away — even when 

 she is with her new mate. As a crotch-horn, 

 however, he would be driven away by the bull, 

 if not by the cow herself. 



The cow does not show the courage in defending 

 her calf from apprehended attack with which she 

 is credited. Calves manifest little or no fear of 

 men, but of course will generally follow their 

 mother in flight. Major Charles W. Hinman, 

 who has a longer list of moose on his score of game 

 killed than any other sportsman of my acquaint- 

 ance, tells of capturing two calf moose in Nova 

 Scotia and photographing them while the mother 

 discreetly retreated to the shelter of the neighbor- 

 ing woods. It was on a meadow on the Shelburne 

 River, May 17, 1915, and the calves, a male and 

 female, were no more than two days old. The 



*^ The Deer Family, p. 295. 



