THE VERTEBRATES: MAMMALS 



253 



bison (Bison bison) (frontispiece), the big-horn or Rocky 

 Mountain sheep (Ovis canadensis) (fig. 128), and the strange 

 pure-white Rocky Mountain goat (Oreamnos montanus). 

 The buffalo was once abundant on the Western plains, 



FIG. 132. A buffalo, Bison bison, killed for its skin and tongue on the 

 plains of Western Kansas, forty years ago. (Photograph by J. Lee 

 Knight.) 



travelling in enormous herds. But so relentlessly has this 

 fine animal been hunted for its skin and flesh that it is now 

 practically exterminated (fig. 132). A small herd is still 

 to be found in Yellowstone Park, and a few individuals 

 live in parks and zoological gardens. In all of the Bovidse 

 the horns are simple, hollow, and permanent, each enclosing 

 a bony core. 



