THE BISON. 



Species I. — The Bison, 



Bos Americanus Gmel. 



/ 



Taurus Mexicanus: Heritand. Mex. 587. Tauri Vaccsque, Ibid. 



Anim. p. 10. 

 The Buffalo: Catesby, Carol. 28 tab. 20. 

 Bceuf Sauvage: Dupratz, Louisiane, ii. 66. 

 American Bull: Pe^ot. Quad. pi. ii, fig 1 . 2. 



[Commonly called Buffaloe.~\ 



From other species of the ox kind, the Bison is 

 well distinguished by the following peculiarities. 

 A long shaggy hair clothes the fore part of the body, 

 forming a well marked beard beneath the lower jaw, 

 and descending behind the knee in a tuft. This hair 

 rises on the top of the head in a dense mass, nearly 

 as high as the extremities of the horns. Over the 

 forehead it is closely curled, and matted so thickly 

 as to deaden the force of a rifle ball, which either 

 rebounds, or lodges in the hair, merely causing the 

 animal to shake his head as he heavily bounds 

 along. 



The head of the bison is large and ponderous, 

 compared with the size of the body; so that the mus- 

 cles for its support, necessarily of great size, give 

 great thickness to the neck, and by their origin from 

 the prolonged dorsal vertebral processes form the 

 peculiar projection called the liumjp. This hump 

 is of an oblong form diminishing in height as it re- 

 cedes, so as to give considerable obliquity to the 

 line of the back. 



