88 <FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY ZOOLOGY, VOL. XL 



Bison americanus ALLEN, Ninth Ann. Kept. U. S. Geol. Surv., 1875 (1877), p. 445 

 (Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, Iowa, Missouri, Minnesota, etc.). 



Bison Americanus LAPHAM, Trans. Wis. State Agr. Soc., II, 1852 (1853), p. 340 

 (Wisconsin). AUDUBON & BACHMAN, Quadrupeds of N. Amer., II, 1854, p. 32 

 (Illinois and Indiana). KENNICOTT, Trans. 111. State Agr. Soc., I, 185354 

 (J855), p. 580 (Cook Co., Illinois). OSBORN, Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci., I, 1887-89 

 (1890), p. 42 (Iowa). 



Bos Americanus THOMAS, Trans. 111. State Agr. Soc., IV, 1859-60 (1861), p. 660 

 (Illinois). HOY, Trans. Wis. Acad. Sci. Arts & Letters, V, 1882, p. 256 (Wis- 

 consin) . 



Type locality Southeastern United States. 



Distribution Formerly ranging from Great Slave Lake south to 

 northern Mexico and eastward throughout the greater part of the 

 United States to Pennsylvania, Virginia, Georgia and South Caro- 

 lina ; now practically extinct except in Yellowstone Park and private 

 preserves. A closely allied northern race (B. bison athabasca) 

 still exists in a wild state in the Great Slave Lake and Mackenzie 

 regions. 



Description Adult male: Horns black, curved outward and upward; 

 general color of upper parts, sides of body and back of hump pale 

 brown; under parts dark brown; shoulders, including "hump" 

 and upper neck, thickly covered with long brownish hair; head, 

 neck and fore legs to the knees covered with long, shaggy, black- 

 ish brown hair; feet black. Length about 10 to n ft.; height 

 at shoulder between 5 and 6 ft.; weight about 2,000 Ibs. 



Adult female: Smaller; the body somewhat darker and hair 

 of head and neck shorter; height at shoulder between 4 and 5 

 feet; weight 700 to 1,000 Ibs. 



Young calves are yellowish brown, palest on the under 

 parts. The number of calves at a birth is usually one, rarely two. 



Of all the countless numbers of Buffalo which roamed throughout 

 the United States a hundred years ago, roughly estimated at from 

 40,000,000 to 50,000,000, only about 2,000 probably remain alive to-day, 

 all of which are preserved in government reservations or in private 

 parks. 



Some idea of the slaughter of these animals during the last years, 

 when they were still to be found in any numbers, and the rapidity 

 with which they disappeared may be gained from the shipments of 

 their skins from stations on the Northern Pacific R.R.*: In 1882, 

 200,000; 1883, 40,000; 1884, 300; 1885, o. In 1885, at almost every 

 town along the line of the road, great piles of their bones were to be 



*Hornaday, W. T. Ext. Amer. Bison, 1889, p. 513. 



