THE AMERICAN MOOSE , 



growth is completed in about three months. Dur- 

 ing this time the drain on the vitaHty of the bull is 

 great. The "velvet," the soft skin which carries 

 the blood-vessels needed in the rapid growth of the 

 antlers, finally dries and peels off, leaving the 

 horns white and bare.^ The peeling of the velvet 

 is assisted by the wearer of the newly-grown 

 antlers. Woodsmen in the moose country are 

 familiar with the frequent sight of saplings worn 

 bare of bark by bulls anxious to rid their new 

 fighting weapons of the ragged disfiguring skin.^ 



Early in September, when the rutting season is 

 about to begin, the last of the velvet has generally 

 been rubbed off, and the moose's antlers, as yet 

 undamaged by contests with rivals, are turning 

 a deeper brown. His coat is now unusually 

 dark and glossy, and he stalks through the woods 

 in the pride of his greatest strength as if clad in a 

 wedding garment. Contests between bull moose 

 take place only in the brief season of the rut. 



^ A valuable service for zoology will be performed by one who, having 

 access to a captive adult bull moose, will make a series of photographs 

 at weekly intervals, showing the animal's horns during the spring and 

 summer months while the horns are growing. An even greater, though 

 more difficult, service would be performed if a series Were made showing 

 the same animal in the fall annually from calfhood to old age. 



3 The maturity of the antlers seems to be attained somewhat later at 

 a high elevation. Mr. Shiras, writing of moose in the southern portion 

 of the Yellowstone National Park, nearly eight thousand feet above 

 the sea, says: "As late as Oct. i not half the bull moose had their 

 antlers free of velvet." {National Geographic Magazine, July, 1913.) 



