THE AMERICAN MOOSE 



scent of the man. Sometimes, indeed, the caller 

 sounds his first invitation from a tree-top, the 

 hunter remaining on the ground. 



The call is a low quavering tone, long drawn out 

 — ^'Mwar!" or "Oo-oo-aw!" It is sometimes 

 described as a whine. It begins in a high key and 

 gradually descends an octave or two. The sound 

 can be plainly heard two or three miles away, 

 nature's wireless telegraph having a surprising 

 radius when the air is not disturbed by wind. If 

 it is necessary to repeat the call, the repetition is 

 not given for ten or twenty minutes,^ and the 

 second call is usually louder and more plaintive 

 than the first. 



If a bull hears the invitation, and is inclined 

 to accept, his hoarse grunt, ''0-oh-ah!" audible 

 across a mile or more of barren or forest, tells the 

 waiting caller that the imitation of the cow's 

 voice was excellently managed. 



After the bull's answer — and answers may 

 come from two or more — breaking of dry branches 



5 A writer in Blackwood's Magazine for August, 1908, seriously asserts 

 that the noise of a steam siren heard at a distance resembles the call 

 of the cow moose, and that moose in Canada have often been shot after 

 having been lured to the seashore by the steam sirens of ships passing 

 in the fog. If a bull moose will respond to a fog signal sounded every 

 minute or so, thinking it is the voice of a female of his own species, 

 the long interval between calls in the practice of most moose callers, 

 would seemingly be unnecessary. 



