554 ANNUAL EEPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1917. 



sources. It is now kept at approximately 17 head and the surplus 

 stock is exchanged to other parks and bison reservations. There are 

 now many places where bison herds are kept and carefully pro- 

 tected and bred so that all danger of the extinction of this famous 

 American ruminant is past. The number of animals is increasing 

 yearly under the direction of the American and Canadian Govern- 

 ments and the American Bison Society ; new herds and reservations 

 to accomodate the surplus animals have been created. 



The first bison to be placed in the National Zoological Park herd 

 were a pair received from E. G. Blackford in 1888, when the collec- 

 tion was kept at the Smithsonian grounds. Animals have since been 

 added from outside sources as follows: Dr. V. T. McGillicuddy, 

 1889, 4; M. Pablo, 1897, 3 ; C. J. Jones, 1901, 1 ; Cody and Bailey, 1904, 

 7; Dr. C. French, 1907, 1; and the Blue Mountain Forest Associa- 

 tion, 1907, 3. All danger of too free interbreeding has thus been 

 eliminated and arrangements have recently been made to receive 

 some young bulls from the Yellowstone National Park. Up to 1918, 

 33 calves had been born in the park herd. There appears to be no 

 restricted season for calving, as births are noted in the park records 

 for every month in the year except February and December. May 

 ranks first with 11 births, April and November second, with 5 each, 

 and January, March, and July are lowest with a single birth credited 

 to each. The bison range is located near the Connecticut Avenue 

 entrance, on the western side of the park. 



The yak {Poephacjm grunniens) is found in a wild state in the 

 very high mountains of central Asia, in Ladak, Tibet, and Kan-su, 

 where it lives at altitudes varying from 14,000 to 20,000 feet. The 

 color of the wild stock is a blackish brown. Tame, semiwild, and 

 feral herds ranging northward into the Altai Mountains at much 

 lower altitudes, even to the Siberian slopes of the Little Altai, are 

 of mixed colors, black, brown, gray, and white. Both sexes nor- 

 mally have horns; those of the male ofttimes are of great length. 

 The natives of central Asia say that the yak is not successfully kept 

 below 4,000 feet in that region. The animals in the Zoological Park, 

 at what is practically sea level, do not seem to suffer from the low 

 altitude, and frequently breed. 



An example of the little buffalo of Celebes, known as the anoa 

 ( Anoa depressicomis) , is one of the prize exhibits of the park. The 

 animal is very rare in collections and is not often seen alive. Our 

 specimen, a fine bull, has been living in his quarters at the antelopt 

 house since 1905, a record of which his keepers may well be proud. 

 He is a snappy, pugnacious animal, quick with his feet and temper, 

 although the smallest of all the buffalo species. The calves of Anoa 

 are sometimes of a beautiful golden brown and some of the females 

 retain this color throughout life ; but the males are usually blackish 



