ppearance of being bifid. The upper lip overhangs the
under by several inches, and is highly prehensile. A long tuft of
coarse hair grows out of an excrescence on the throat, in the angle
between the head and neck. This tuft is observed both in the male and
female, though only when full-grown. In the young, the excrescence is
naked.

An erect mane, somewhat resembling that of a cropped Shetland pony, runs
from the base of the horns over the withers, and some way down the back.
This adds to the stiff and ungainly appearance of the animal.

The horns of the moose are a striking characteristic: they are palmated
or flattened out like shovels, while along the edge rise the points or
antlers. The width from horn to horn at their tops is often more than
four feet, and the breadth of a single one, antlers included, is
frequently above thirty inches. A single pair has been known to weigh
as much as 60 pounds avoirdupois!

Of course this stupendous head-dress gives the moose quite an imposing
appearance; and it is one of the wonders of the naturalist what can be
its object.

The horns are found only on the males, and attain their full size only
when these have reached their seventh year. In the yearlings appear two
knobs, about an inch in length; in two-year-olds, these knobs have
become spikes a foot high; in the third year they begin to palmate, and
antlers rise along their edges; and so on, until the seventh year, when
they become fully developed. They are annually caducous, however, as
with the common deer, so that these immense appendages are the growth of
a few weeks!

The haunts and habits of the moose differ materially from those of other
deer. He cannot browse upon level ground without kneeling or widening
his legs to a great extent: this difficulty arises from the extreme
length of his legs, and the shortness of his neck. He can do better
upon the sides of steep hills, and he is often seen in such places
grazing _upward_.

Grass, however, is not his favourite food: he prefers the twigs and
leaves of trees--such as birch, willow, and maple. There is one species
of the last of which he is extremely fond; it is that known as striped
maple (_Acer striatum_), or, in the language of hunters, "moose-wood."
He peels off the bark from old trees of this sort, and feeds upon it, as
well as upon several species of mosses with which the arctic regions
abound. It will be seen that in these respects he resembles th