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THE AMEEICA]^ BISONS, 



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exhilarating, or gives one a stronger sense of being really amid nature's 

 untamed "wilds, than, when encamped on the outskirts of a quiescent herd, to 



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be awakened on a fresh June morning by their distant bellowing, and to see 

 them^ as daylight advances^ quietly grazing over a vast expanse of the green 



prairie 



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3 may be well imagined, not only the movements but the habits of the 

 buffaloesj in their undisturbed daily lives, are in general not far different 

 from those of grazing herds of domestic cattle. They indulge in similar 



blustering 



demonstrations. 



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thrusting them into banks when 



gambols, and, when belligerent, in similar 

 When appi-oached by man they will often assume an aspect so threatening 

 that a novice at buffalo-hunting might easily be appalled by the fierce 

 demonstrations indulged in by the boastful but cowardly old bulls. Bold 

 at first, and apparently challenging attack, the old bulls, with the head 

 lowered and the tail erect, "will pace uneasily to and fro, threateningly 

 pawing the earth, or face the approaching enemy with a sullen and 

 most determined air only tq take to their heels the very next moment. 

 The bulls are at all times excessively fond of pawing the ground, and of 

 throwing uj) the earth with their horns 



such are at hand, or into the bare level ground, which they accomplish by 

 lowering themselves upon one knee. To such an extent do they pursue this 

 pastime that the horns of the older bulls become very much worn and splin- 

 tered, in occasional instaiices the horny covering of the more exposed part 

 being worn very thin, and in rare instances entirely through to the bony core. 



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Particularly bovine, also, is the satisfaction they take in rubbing themselves 

 against whatever will oppose resistance, whether it be rocks, trees, bushes, 

 or a clay-bluff; the telegraph-poles, however, erected along the raih^oads 



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that cross their range, afforded them especial dehght as scratching-posts, 

 and soon became as well smoothed and covered with tufts of hair and 

 grease from their unctuous hides as are the posts about a farmer's cattle- 

 yard. What is very unlike anything in the habits of domestic cattle, how- 



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ever, is their propensity to roll themselves on the ground, which, notwith- 

 standing their seemingly inconvenient form, they do with the greatest ease, 

 rolling over as completely as a horse, and apparently with far less exertion. 

 But their especial delight is to roll in the mud, or in ^^ Avallowing," as it is 

 termed, from which exercise they arise looking more like an animated mass 

 of mud than their former selves, f The object of these peculiar ablutions is 



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doubtless to cool their heated bodies and to free themselves from trouble 



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