The Bison 165 



AMERICAN BISON 



(Bos BISON ^) 



The great elevation of the fore quarters, the 

 mass of long hair clothing the head, shoulders, 

 and fore part of the body, together with the pecul- 

 iar form of the head and horns, the latter of which 

 are cylindrical, serve at once to distinguish the 

 bison from the other members of the ox tribe. 

 Some of the points distinguishing the American 

 bison from its European cousin are that the mass 

 of hair on the fore quarters is longer, the form 

 of the skull is different, the horns are shorter, 

 thicker, blunter, and more sharply curved. In 

 the skull of the American animal the sockets 

 of the eyes have a more tubular form. 



Height at shoulder about 6 feet; weight from 

 15 to 20 hundredweight; an adult bull weighed 

 by W. T. Hornaday scaled 1727 pounds. 



Distribtttion. — The greater portion of western 

 North America, ascending to the Great Slave Lake, 

 and descending to New Mexico and Texas ; now 

 nearly exterminated. American writers recognize 

 two races (or species), the prairie bison {B. bison 

 typicus) and the larger wood bison {B. bison atha- 

 basccE) of the forest highlands of the northwest. 



1 "Records of Big Game," Rowland Ward, third edition. 



