176 PROCEEblNGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1896. 



Other aid in the preparation of this paper will be duly acknowl- 

 edged in its proper place. The order of families and genera here 

 adopted is largely based on the classification of Flower and Lyddeker 

 in their recent work on the mammalia. 



Order MARSUPIALIA. 



Family DIDELPH'SID^. 



Genus DIDELPHIS Linnaeus. 



1. Didelphis marsupialis virginiana (Kerr). Virginia Opossum. 



I did not see this species, but it is accounted common all over the 

 State below elevations of 2,000 feet. Mr. Miles says the negroes of 

 Haywood and Lauderdale Counties claim two species, one with 

 black, the other with white feet, but he thinks them identical. 

 There is probably a tendency in the opossums of southwestern 

 Tennessee to the Texan form, D. m. californica. 



Order UNO UL AT A. 

 ramily BOVIDJE. 

 Genus BISON H. Smith. 



2. Bison bison (L.). American Bison, Buflalo. 



In his Monograph of The American Bisons^ Dr. J. A. Allen 

 presents us with nearly all that is obtainable in literature regarding 

 the history of this animal in Tennessee. From these sources we 

 know that they formerly passed over the Cumberland and Great 

 Smoky mountain ranges by Avay of the Holston and French Broad 

 Rivers, to and from the Valley of East Tennessee. 



The number and frequency of these migrations, however, were 

 not great, by far the larger number of buffalo being confined* to 

 the Cumberland Valley and its tributaries in Middle Tennessee and 

 no mention being made of their occurrence in Western Tennessee. 



The point of greatest abundance was undoubtedly in the " blue- 

 grass region " of the vicinity of Nashville, especially about the salt 

 and sulphur springs of Mansker's Creek, Madison's Lick, Lickton, 

 etc., in Davidson County. Buffalo River is the most southwestern 

 locality which appears to have been the haunt of this animal, and our 

 authority for this rests solely on the traditional name. The same 

 remarks apply to towns named Buffalo in Humphreys and Law- 

 rence Counties, and seem to indicate that the bison ranged to a 



"Mem.Mus. Comp. Zool., Cambridge, Vol. IV., No. 10, pp. 92,102,112, 114. 



