THE AMERICAN BISONS. 59 
The moulting of the buffaloes begins quite early in the season, their skins 
being in prime condition for robes during only about three months of the 
year. They are in their best estate for this purpose in December, though 
they are in fair condition in November and January, and are indeed pretty 
fully haired in the months preceding and following these. The long hair on 
the legs, neck, and head is not annually shed, but the soft short woolly 
covering of the body is usually renewed each year. The short soft hair 
begins to loosen in February, and during the following months gradually 
falls, so that by May or June the body of the animal, especially the posterior 
part, becomes quite naked, and remains so for several weeks. Gradually the 
dark-colored new hair begins to appear, covering the animal’s body with a 
fine soft velvety coat. During the period of moulting the animal presents a 
very ragged and uncouth appearance, the woolly hair hanging here and there 
in matted loosened masses with intervening naked spaces. During this 
period the animals search for trees, bushes, rocks, or banks of earth against 
which they may rub to free themselves from the loosened hair, often also 
rolling on the ground for the same purpose. The hair on the hump, which 
is thicker and longer than that. on the other parts of the body, is last shed, 
and in very old animals is not always annually renewed. The moulting of 
the pelage takes place later in the old and lean animals than in the others, 
and nearly a month later in the cows than in the bulls, so that in June, while 
the greater part are smooth and dark, a few are conspicuous among the 
others from still retaining their old and faded coats of the previous year. 
The buffalo is quite nomadic in its habits, the same individuals roaming, in 
the course of the year, over vast areas of country. Their wanderings, how- 
ever, are generally in search of food or water, or result from the persecutions 
of human foes. The fires that annually sweep over immense tracks of the 
grassy plains, sometimes destroying the herbaceous vegetation over thou- 
sands of square miles in continuous area, often force the buffaloes, besides 
inspiring them with terror, to make long journeys in search of food. Occa- 
sionally the ravages of the grasshoppers cause similar migrations, these pests 
leaving large sections of country as bare of vegetation as it is when swept 
by a prairie fire. The habit of the buffaloes, too, of keeping together in im- 
mense herds renders a slow but constant movement necessary in order to find 
food, that of a single locality soon becoming exhausted. They are also 
accustomed to make frequent shorter journeys to obtain water. The streams 
throughout the range of the buffalo run mainly in an east and west- direc- 
