42 



MAMMALS OF AMERICA 



enough to run with the herd, and their safety is 

 then assured. 



The Gow Bison is not always the most sohci- 

 tous of mothers as regards her httle one's safety. 

 Mr. Ernest Thompson Seton states that a cow- 

 puncher some years ago " often amused himself 

 by roping the calves. When one was caught, 

 he would jump off, remove the lasso, and hold it 

 with his hands. The mother would stand at a 

 distance of lOO yards gazing anxiously, neither 

 cow nor calf making any sound. As soon as he 

 let the calf go, the mother, seeing it was free, 

 knew it would take care of itself, and, turning 



During the latter part of the breeding season 

 the animals of all ages and both sexes have inter- 

 mixed in the herd. After September the males 

 become indifferent to their partners, and separate 

 themselves into one herd and the females into 

 another. As early as 1542, Coronado and his 

 followers were "much surprised at sometimes 

 meeting innumerable herds of bulls without a 

 single cow, and other herds of cows without 

 bulls." 



There has been some difference of opinion 

 with regard to the Buffalo and migration. Catlin 

 says : " These animals are, truly speaking, 



Si^iC^ll^] 



.»Miu»t:j< I 



gettinct ready for summer 



The Bison shed their shaggy coats with the approach of spring, and do not don them again until well into 



the fall 



tail, went off at full gallop, without even looking 

 behind." 



As the Bison shed their coats, leaving much 

 of their hinder parts naked, they suffered much 

 from the attacks of mosquitoes and from the 

 prickly seeds of the spear grass. The huge ani- 

 mals availed themselves of any convenient 

 boulder or the trunks of trees against which to 

 rub themselves, in their desire to gain relief 

 from their insect scourges. The early telegraph 

 poles over the plains were frequently thrown 

 down by the 'Buffaloes rubbing against them. 

 Another remedy employed was the wallow of 

 water' and mud. 



gregarious but not migratory :" and there are to 

 be considered the undoubted facts that the line 

 of march was not always the same, that in cer- 

 tain cases the movements of the herds were not 

 prompted by the necessity of seeking fresh pas- 

 turage, and that herds were found winter and 

 summer over certain parts of the animals' range. 

 But, whether from choice or from necessity, vast 

 numbers of Buffaloes, sometimes reaching into 

 the millions, moved northward three or four 

 hundred miles in the spring, and southward in 

 the fall, and this habit is known to have existed 

 for a hundred years. As Seton says : " Theo- 

 retically, the Buffalo must have been migratory. 



