HABITS OF BISON. 245 



in Southern India do not eat ; but I did not find this prejudice regarding 

 buffaloes existing in Bengal. 



Bison seldom form herds of more than thirty or forty individuals ; the 

 general number is about twelve. I have, however, seen a collection which, 

 I believe, contained not less than one hundred. It was at the commence- 

 ment of the early rains whilst pasture was still limited, and this gathering 

 was very temporary. One bull holds undisputed sway in each herd, the 

 other males being younger animals incapable of disputing his authority. On 

 the leading bull's strength declining with age he is ousted by more youthful 

 rivals, and thenceforward invariably, I believe, leads a solitary life, unless he 

 is able to force himself for a season into a herd whose chief is in worse case 

 than himself. I have never found a really aged ball with a herd. 



I will first treat of the habits of herd-bison, and then of the solitary 

 bulls ; the latter are noble beasts, and well entitled to a special notice. 



Herd-bison are shy and retiring in their habits, and retreat at once if 

 intruded upon by man. They avoid the vicinity of his dwellings, and never 

 visit patches of cultivation in the jungle, as do wild elephants, deer, and 

 wild hog. The bison is thus an animal which would soon become extinct 

 before the advance of civilisation were the latter rapid, or were the jungles 

 which he roams limited in extent ; but his exemption from serious diminu- 

 tion, except in isolated positions, is secured by the existence of the con- 

 tinuous jungles of the Western Ghats and other forest-ranges. 



Bison, though found in the low-country jungles, are very partial to high 

 and well- wooded tracts, and their activity in hilly ground is astonishing. A 

 herd scrambles up a steep hillside almost with the facility of a troop of 

 deer, or thunders down a slope into the thicker cover of the valley, when 

 alarmed, at a rapid trot or free gallop. 



The food of the bison — as of the wild elephant — consists chiefly of 

 grasses, and only in a secondary degree of bamboo leaves and twigs, the 

 thick and succulent tuberous shoots of the bamboo which appear during the 

 rains, and of the bark of some trees, particularly one known in Canarese as 

 " Nelly " (Phyllanthus emblica). Bison feed till about nine in the morning, 

 or later in cloudy and rainy weather ; they then rest, lying down in bamboo- 

 cover or light forest until the afternoon, when they rise to graze and drink ; 

 they also invariably lie down for some hours during the night. 



Although certainly quick in detecting an intruder, bison can scarcely be 

 considered naturally wary animals, as they seldom encounter alarms in their 

 native haunts. Unsophisticated herds will frequently allow several shots to 

 be fired at them before making off, and even then probably will not go far. 

 But if subjected to frequent disturbance they quickly become as shy as deer, 



