NATIONAL ZOOLOGICAL PARK——BAKER. 447 
bison a ‘‘buffalc,”’ a name which properly belongs to a quite different 
group. The genus Bison is common to both Europe and America. 
The European animal once pervaded the great forests of Germany, 
Austria, and Poland very much as our form did the western plains, 
but retired before advancing civilization, until now it is found only 
in two carefully guarded preserves, in central Russia and the Cau- 
casus. He is not as picturesque an animal as his American cousin. 
The immense head and shoulders of the bison give it an aspect of 
great force and dignity, and it is a favorite subject with sculptors and 
painters. J am informed by Mr. Charles R. Knight, the well-known 
illustrator, that the bison engraved on the United States treasury 
note for $10 was from a drawing made by him of the very animal 
shown in plate 3. Asis the case with many herding animals, there 
is usually a single one who by superior strength and prowess com- 
mands the others and becomes the leader of the herd. In the course 
of time his powers weaken and some younger aspirant displaces him. 
A tragical occurrence of this kind happened at the park a few years 
ago, when two young bulls attacked the reigning monarch of the 
herd and gored him to death in spite of the exertions of the keepers. 
The short, powerful horns of the animal can inflict serious injury, 
and it is not safe to approach too closely the fence of the paddock 
where they are confined. They have been known to attack and 
seriously injure their keepers. 
The yak, an animal nearly allied to our bison, is found in quite 
a distant part of the globe, in the high, mountainous regions of 
Tibet Its heavy, thick coat of hair, which falls about it in long 
fringes nearly to the ground, shows that it is prepared to resist 
extreme cold. This hair is so arranged as to form a kind of mat 
for the animal when it lies down upon the icy rocks where it makes 
its home. The legs are short and stout and the hoofs large and 
rounded, well calculated to give it a footing upon the mountain 
passes. Its horns are wide and spreading, somewhat like those of 
some varieties of our domestic oxen. The specimen shown in 
plate 3 used to delight in diggmg up the earth with these great 
horns, defacing the hillside of its paddock so that he had to be 
removed to more level ground. 
Adapted to resist cold, this animal is rather intolerant of heat 
and suffers considerably during the heated term of a Washington 
summer. It does not bellow like our oxen, but has a rather char- 
acteristic grunting bark, which has led to its being called the grunt- 
ing ox. 
The yak has been domesticated and is used to carry burdens 
over the mountain passes of upper Tibet. It is said that without 
them traffic would be almost impossible, as there are no other ani- 
