276 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



the grandmother of many of them. As Long says," " Cows are 

 often seen accompanied by the calves of three seasons." The 

 males remain with the females and take an active interest in 

 the young. Animals know and stay with their personal ac- 

 quaintances; they resent the approach of strangers; migrants 

 work back to their birthplace; whenever a local band of 

 Buffalo was wiped out, their pasturage remained vacant for 

 years, so it is unlikely that this group is finally scattered during 

 the annual herding. The evidence derived from common 

 range cattle sustains this idea; for, in spite of the annual 

 round-ups which correspond to the annual herding of the 

 Buffalo, we usually find the same little bunch of cattle (easily 

 distinguishable by their marks) on the same feeding-ground 

 season after season. Finally, the Bison is polygamous, or 

 probably promiscuous, so that those living together are sure 

 to be much interrelated, that is, they form a clan. 



The blood-and-clan feeling of the group, therefore, I 

 think well established; but, because it has been questioned, 

 I was glad, long after the above was written, to find the fol- 

 lowing penned by an undoubted authority, Buffalo Jones :^^ 



" Each small group is of the same strain of blood. There 

 is no animal in the world more clannish than the Buffalo. 

 The male calf follows the mother until two years old, when he 

 is driven out of the herd, and the parental tie is then entirely 

 broken. The female calf fares better, as she is permitted to 

 stay with her mother's family for life, unless by some acci- 

 dent she becomes separated from the group. 



"The resemblance of each individual of a family is very 

 striking, while the difference between families is as apparent 

 to the practised eye as is the Caucasian from the MongoHan 

 race of people. 



" These groups are as quickly separated from the great herd 

 after a stampede as is a company of soldiers from its regiment 

 at the close of 'dress parade.' The several animals know each 

 other by scent and sound; they grunt similarly to a hog, but 

 in a much stronger tone, and are quickly recognized by every 



"*' Exped. Rocky Mts., 1823, p. 473. " Buff. Jones Advt., 1899, p. 234. 



