TIIJS BUFFALO. 195 



The social character of the bison is much like that of the 

 domestic cattle. It is gregarious in habit, and travels in 

 herds which have been estimated to contain over one hun- 

 dred thousand individuals, and to cover an extensive plain 

 so thickly that it looked almost one mass of black dots at 

 a distance. The herds are not so large now as they for- 

 merly were, yet they may, in some regions, still be com- 

 pared to the "cattle on a thousand hills;" and few grander 

 sights can be witnessed than to behold them in herds of 

 many hundreds, moving north or south during their annual 

 migrations. 



The females commence bearing when three years old, and 

 continue to be prolific up to an old age. They produce 

 only one calf at a time, and drop that generally in April, 

 though I have seen some in July that did not look to be 

 more than two or three weeks old. 



The mothers seem to have little affection for their 

 young, and generally desert them at the first alarm ; but 

 the males are sturdy protectors, and carefully guard them 

 from all foes. Calves run with their mothers until the lat- 

 ter are ready to increase the bovine population again, and 

 after that they look out for themselves. When the females 

 are about to become mothers they retire from the herd 

 singly, and secrete themselves in some refuge where the 

 young may be protected from wolves and other foes until 

 they are able to run about; and when that time comes 

 they rejoin the males, and the united company stroll over 

 many long miles together. 



When a herd is feeding, the cows and calves are in the 

 centre, and the old bulls occupy the outer spaces, as if they 

 intended to make an abatis of their horns to repel all ad- 

 versaries. How effective a protection this abatis is, the 

 wolves, which constantly attend the herds in large numbers, 

 to see if they can pick up a calf or a wounded adult, know 

 too well, for they never attempt to force it; and that the 

 buffaloes consider it impregnable is evident by the con- 

 tempt with which they treat their hungry attendants, and 

 the closeness to which they will allow them to approach 



