Zoological Societij. 149 



excited in me the desire to draw up a treatise on tlie Bison ; for my 

 own experience embraces curious facts and free from all error. 



I have turned my attention particularly to refute by experience 

 the erroneous opinion, accredited by all the writers who have treated 

 on this subject, namely that the calf of the Bison cannot be suckled by 

 our domestic cow. This fable has been repeated even in the work 

 of an esteemed writer of our times, the Baron de Brinvers, who rely- 

 ing upon the recital of another writer, the learned Gilibert, asserts 

 that two female Bison calves, caught in the forest of Bialowieza, 

 seven weeks old, constantly refused the teats of a domestic cow ; 

 that they consented, indeed, to suck a goat, but as soon as they had 

 had enough, thej'^ repelled their nurse with disdain, and grew furious 

 whenever they were put to a domestic cow. M. de Brinvers had 

 not himself the possibility of verifying this fact ; and he cites tra- 

 ditions, communicated to him by the old inhabitants of the environs ; 

 for if any one of the forest guards, or the peasants who inhabit the 

 forest, had even met a Bison calf, parted by any accident from its 

 mother, he would rather have left it, than seized and nursed it, in 

 contravention of the severe law, which prohibits the capture or kill- 

 ing of a Bison. It was therefore only the supreme order of His 

 Majesty the Emperor, emanating from the desire expressed by Her 

 Majesty Queen Victoria to possess in her Zoological Garden two living 

 Bisons, which has enabled me to rectify the error above mentioned. 

 For as many attempts had already proved, that Bisons captured full- 

 grown and in their wild state could never bear the captivity and 

 especially the transport, and would infallibly pei'ish, I j)roposed to 

 catch two young calves, and to suckle them at the houses of the 

 forest guards. His Excellence the Minister of the Domains of the 

 Empire, Comte de Kisseleff, having approved of this project, and 

 ordered it to be put in execution, I went without delay to the forest of 

 Bialowieza. It was the 20th of July, 1846, at daybreak, and assisted 

 by 300 beaters and 80 keepers of that forest, armed with fowling- 

 pieces, charged only with powder, that we set out on the trace of a 

 troop of Bisons explored during the night. 



The day was superb and the sky serene ; there was not a breath 

 of wind, and nothing interrupted the calm of nature, so imposing 



under the majestic dome of the primitive forest The 300 



beaters, aided by 50 keepers, had surrounded in the most profound 

 silence the solitary valley in which were the troop of Bisons. Ac- 

 companied by 30 keepers of determination and merit, we penetrated, 

 step by step, into the surrounded enclosure, advancing with the 

 greatest caution, and, so to speak, holding our breath. Arrived at 

 the limit which bordered the valley, we enjoyed one of the most in- 

 teresting pictures ! The troop of Bisons was lying down on the slope 

 of a hill, ruminating, in the most perfect security, whilst the calves 

 gamboled around the troop, amused themselves with attacking one 

 another, striking the ground with their agile feet, and throwing up 

 the sand into the air ; then they ran off to their respective mothers, 

 rubbed themselves against them, licked them, and then returned to 

 their gambols. But at the first sound of the horn the picture changed 

 in the twinkling of an eye ! The troop, as if struck by a magic wand, 



