52 THE AMERICAN BISONS. 
copies of it. Hernandez’s figure, however, has been repeatedly referred to 
as the first published figure of the American bison. Towards the end of the 
seventeenth century a somewhat similar figure was published by Hennepin.* 
During the eighteenth century others were added by Du Pratz, Lawson 
(in his “ History of Carolina t), Catesby, + Buffon, § and others, Catesby’s and 
Buffon’s being very fair representations of the animal intended, and are the 
first that attained a tolerable degree of accuracy. 
The first good figures are those given by F. Cuvier and Geoffroy, || consist- 
ing of a series of three, drawn from specimens living in the Menagerie at 
Paris. The first is that of a young male in summer pelage, the second that of 
a young female, and the third that of a calf a few weeks old. These are all 
very fine, especially in respect to color, in which they excel all others, those 
of Catlin and Audubon being of too dark a tint. 
Catlin, in his “North American Indians” (Vol. I), devotes a series of 
fourteen spirited plates to the illustration of the American bison. The male 
is represented in plate vii of this work ; the female in plate viii; in plate ix 
is depicted a collision of a bull and a horse during a chase, and in plate x a 
wounded bull is represented. In plate cv is figured a herd in the rutting 
season ; in plate cvi a herd at rest, with an old bull wallowing in the fore- 
ground ; plates cvii to exii form a series illustrating the hunting of the buffalo 
by the Indians; plates cxiii and cxiv represent buffaloes attacked by wolves. 
Besides Audubon’s § well-known figures, among those worthy of special 
notice are those in Schoolcraft’s great work on the Indians,** in which in 
plate viii is given a comparative view of the buffalo and domestic cow; in 
plate ix, a view of a buffalo chase; in plate x, buffalo hunting in winter; in 
plate xi, a view of a large herd of buffaloes; in plate xii, another view of a 
large herd with an old bull in the foreground ; plate xiii, buffalo skinning. 
The earlier figures are of course noteworthy only as being the first at- 
tempts at delineating the American bison. Those by Catlin, on the other 
hand, truthfully and vividly depict scenes which, though formerly character- 
* Discovery of a Vast Country, ete., p. 90. 
{ Fig. ilo, 
t Nat. Hist. of Carolina, ete., pl. xx. 
§ Hist. Nat., Suppl., TI, pl. v. 
|| Hist Nat. des Mam, Tome J, livr. xii (young male); Tome II, livr. xxxii (young female) ; Tome HI, 
livr. xlix (calf a few weeks old). 
{| Quad. North America, Vol. TI, pls. lvi, lvii. 
** Hist. Prosp. & Cond. Indian Tribes of North America, Vol. IV, pls. vili- xiii. 
