22 



The National Collection 



America the American Bison and Musk-Ox. Considered alive, as zoological- 

 garden specimens, they are like gold, 



"Heavy to get, and hard to hold." 



And this accounts for the great rarity of collections which contain living- 

 examples of even one-half the species named ahove. 



HORNS OF AMEKICAX BISOX 



A scries showing progress from the yearling bull to the twenty-year-old "stub-horn" 

 bull. Collected on the Montana buffalo range in 1886, by W. T. H. 



Starting with the species nearest home, the American Bison is repre- 

 sented in the collection now under consideration by a carefully selected series 

 of twelve pairs of horns (Figs. 2 to 13, inclusive), representing .all life periods 

 of the male between the yearling and the aged "stub-horn bull." All these ai'e 

 from wild animals, and have been in the writer's possession for twenty-one 

 years, awaiting such an occasion as the present. No attempt has been made to 



