38 THE AMERICAN BISONS. 
are rather more incurved at the tips, where they are rarely abraded as in the 
males. The hoofs are short and broad, those of the fore feet abruptly — 
rounded at the end; those of the hind feet are much narrower and more 
pointed. The muffle is broad and naked, having much the same form as in the 
domestic ox. The short tail has the long hairs restricted to a tuft at the end. 
In winter the head, neck, legs, tail, and whole under parts, are blackish- 
brown’; the upper surface of the body lighter. The color above becomes 
gradually lighter towards spring; the new short hair in autumn is soft dark 
umber or liver-brown. In very old individuals the long woolly hair over the 
shoulders bleaches to a light yellowish-brown. Young animals are generally 
wholly dark brown, darkest about the head, on the lower surface of the 
body, and on the limbs. The young calf is at first nearly uniform light 
chestnut-brown, or yellowish-brown, with scattered darker hairs on the belly, 
where are also occasionally small patches of white. Toward autumn the 
light yellowish color is replaced by the darker brown that characterizes the 
older animals. After the first few months the younger animals are darker 
than they are later in life, at middle-age the coat, especially over the 
shoulders, becoming lighter and presenting a bleached or faded appearance, 
which increases with age. The horns, hoofs, and muffle are black, the hoofs 
being sometimes edged or striped with whitish. There are no important 
sexual differences in color. 
The woolly hair-over the shoulders is much longer and more shaggy than 
elsewhere on the body; it increases in length on the neck above, gradually 
losing its woolly character, and between the horns attains a length of ten to 
fourteen inches, nearly concealing the ears and the bases of the horns, and 
often partly covers the eyes. The long hair advances also on the face, where 
it decreases in length and becomes more woolly again, extending far forward 
in a pointed area nearly to the nose. The chin and throat are also covered 
with long hair, which under the chin forms an immense beard, eight or ten 
inches to a foot or more in length. Thick masses of long hair also arise from 
the inner and posterior surfaces of the upper part of the fore legs, where 
the hair often attains a length of six or eight inches. A strip of long hair 
also extends along the crest of the back nearly to the tail. The tail is cov- 
ered with only short soft hair till near the tip, from which arises a tuft of 
coarse long hair twelve to eighteen inches in length. The hinder and 
lower portions of the body and legs are covered with short soft woolly hair, 
This is moulted early in spring, after which for a few weeks the hinder 
