y. 



f'n 



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52 



THE AMEEICAN" BISOITS. 



copies of it. Hernandez's figure, however^ has been repeatedly referred to 

 as the first published figure of the American bison. Towards the end of the 



r" 



seventeenth century a somewhat similar figure was published by Hennepin.^ 

 During the eighteenth century others were added by Du Pratz, Lawson 

 in his "History of Carolina t)^ Catesby^t Buffbn, § and others, Catesby's and 

 Buffbn's being very fair representations of the animal intended^ and are the 



first that attained a tolerable degree of accuracy. 



The first good figures are those given by F. Cuvier and Geoffrey, || consist- 

 ing of a series of three, drawn from specimens living in the Menagerie at 

 Paris. The first is that of a young male in summer pelage, the second that of 

 a young female, and the third that of a calf a few weeks old. These are all 

 very fine, especially in respect to color, in which they excel all otherS; those 

 of Catlin and Audubon being of too dark a tint. 



Catlin, in his "North American Indians" (Vol. I), devotes a series of 

 fourteen spirited plates to the illustration of the American bison. The male 



is represented in plate vii of this work ; the female in plate viii ; in plate ix 

 is depicted a collision of a bull and a horse during a chase, and iu plate x a 

 wounded bull is represented. In plate cv is figured a herd in the rutting 

 season ; in plate cvi a h^rd at rest, with an old bull wallowing in the fore- 

 ground ; plates cvii to cxii form a series illustrating the hunting of the buffalo 

 by the Indians ; plates cxiii and cxiv rej)resent buffaloes attacked by wolves. 

 Besides Audubon's f* well-known figures, among those worthy of special 



notice are those in Schoolcraft's great work on the Indians,** in which in 

 plate viii is given a comparative view of the 



cow ; m 



plate ix, a view of a buffalo chase ; in plate x, buffalo htmting in winter ; in 

 plate xi, a view of a large herd of buffaloes : in plate xii, another view of a 

 large herd with an old bull in the foreground ; plate xiii, buffalo skinning. 



The earlier figures are of course noteworthy only as being the first at- 

 tempts at delineating the American bison. Those by Catlin, on the other 

 handj truthfully and vividly depict scenes which, though formerly character- 



r 



* Discovery of a Vast Country, etc., p. 90. 



t Fig. 115. 



J Nat. Hist, of Carolina, etc., pi. xx. ' 



§ Hist. Nat., Suppl., Ill, pi. V. ' 



II Hist Nat. des Mam , Tome I, livr. xii (young male) ; Tome H, livr. xxxii (young female) ; Tome IH, 



livr. xlix (calf a few weeks old). 



If Quad. North America, Vol H, pis. Ivi, Ivii. 



** Hist. Prosp. & Cond. Indian Tribes of North America, Vol. IV, pis. viii - xiii. 



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