-—atrrneneeontaiuete etter 
THE AMERICAN BISONS. 1270 
northeastern provinces of Mexico, including certainly portions of the present 
States of Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Cohahuila, Chihuahua, and Durango. It 
thus extended southward to at least the 25th parallel. It seems not, how- 
ever, to have been abundant over much of this region, and to have been 
mainly extirpated prior to the beginning of the present century. As late as 
1806, however, Pike enumerated the buffalo among the animals of “Cog- 
quilla”’* (a province then extending on both sides of the Rio Grande, and 
embracing a portion of what is now Southwestern Texas), but whether found 
north or south of the Rio Grande is not’ stated. The buffalo is not enumer- 
ated by Pike in his lists of the animals of any of the other Mexican Prov- 
inces situated south of the Rio Grande.t 
De Laétt mentions the buffalo (under the name “Armenta”), on the 
authority of Gomara, as an inhabitant of Quivira, which he describes as a 
country consisting of plains destitute of trees, and well known ‘as situated 
far to the northward of the present northern boundary of Mexico. It is to 
be noticed also that all the references to the buffalo by the older writers 
on the natural history of Mexico, including Hernandez, Fernandez, and 
Nieremburg, and even Clavigero, refer to the region of Quivira. 
Dr. Berlandier, who was for a long time a resident of the northeastern 
provinces of Mexico, and who at his death left in MSS. a large work§ on 
the Mammals of Mexico, speaks of the buffalo as formerly ranging far to the 
southward of the Rio Grande. I am unable to say, however, what are his 
authorities. In his chapter on this animal, he thus refers to its former range 
in Mexico : — 
“Au Mexique, lorsque les espagnols, toujours avides de richesses, pous- 
saient leurs excursions dans le nord et nord ouest, ils ne tardérent pas a ren- 
contrer des bisons. En 1602, les moines Franciscains qui découvrirent le Nou- 
veau Leon, rencontrerent dans les environs de Monterey de nombreux trou- 
peaux de ces quadrupédes. Ils étaient aussi assez répandus dans la Nouvelle 
* “ Animals. — Deer, wild horses, a few buffalo, and wild hogs.” — Prxr’s (Z. M.) Western Expeditions, 
App. to Part IIL, p. 28, 1810. 
ft Catlin in his “ North American Indians,” Vol. I, gives a map illustrative of the distribution of the 
Indian tribes in 1833. On this map an attempt is made to also show the range of the buffalo. Although 
this is done very imperfectly, it may be worthy of mention in this connection that he here represents the 
buffalo as ranging over the greater part of the above-named provinces of Northeastern Mexico. 
{ America, p. 303. 
§ Now in the Smithsonian Institution. For access to this important MS. I am indebted to the kindness 
of Professor S. F. Baird, Assist. See’y of the Smithsonian Institution. 
