B I h O N. 



49.5 



with the spine and its immediate productions, for the 

 spine may be considered as the foundation upon 

 which all mammalia are in a pre-eminent manner 

 organised. Now, as the spine of the common bison 

 has fourteen ribs on each side, while that of all the 

 varieties of the ox lias only thirteen, the American 

 bison has fifteen pairs. Farther, as the interscapular 

 vertebrae of the bison have their spinous processes 

 much more produced than those of the o.v, so their 

 processes are, in the American bison, much more 

 produced than in the other. There are no such 

 differences in the skeleton of any two more varieties 

 of animals of the same species, and therefore we must 

 conclude that the difference of these bisons is spe- 

 cific : that though they have a considerable likeness, 

 each is an original race, aud not a branch of the 

 other. 



Size is, in the genus bos especially, not a specific 

 character, as may be seen by placing the Shetland and 

 a Lincolnshire ox in juxtaposition. But the American, 

 bison is usually described as being, in all its dimen- 

 sions, a foot less than that of the east, namely, about 

 five feet hisfh at the shoulder, four at the crupper, and 

 between eight and nine feet in length. As the 

 spinous processes over the shoulders are larger in 

 proportion, the hump, or accumulation there, is 

 larger, and extends farther down the back. 



The forehead is very broad in proportion to its 

 height, as in the other species, and the face is rather 

 shorter in proportion. As is the case in the other, 

 the face is covered with short hair only, but the short 

 hair upon all parts of the American one has, in the 

 cold season, a tendency to meet or curl slightly. The 

 mane and produced hair upon the fore part generally 

 is longer and thicker than in the other species, but it 

 does not contain the same quantity of woolly under 

 covering. The old coat on the short-haired part of 

 the body comes off when the new is just beginning to 

 make its appearance, so that, for a portion of the 

 summer, the skin of that part, which is black, roucrh, 

 and furrowed, and very strong, is easily seen. This 

 difference of covering would of itself indicate some 

 difference of habit in the two species. 



The horns are set wide apart from each other, as 

 in the former species, but they are shorter, not. quite 

 so robust, and bent more, first laterally, and then 

 forwards. The eye is of the same dark colour, but 

 smaller. The tail is larger, and the brush of hair in 

 which it ends longer. The colour is of the same 

 general character, but darker ; and when in the 

 perfection of its growth, the long hair on the anterior 

 part of the body is nearly black. When this part of 

 the skin is prepared with the hair on, it is proof 

 against the weather. 



This species is popularly known in the United 

 States as the buffalo, but it has none of the characters 

 of the buffaloes of the eastern world, farther than 

 belonging to the same genus. So far as we can 

 judge from the common bison, as known by the small 

 existing remnant, the American species is much more 

 gregarious, and as such, it is much less a woodland 

 animal, being found in the open savannahs rather 

 than the forests, and living more by browsing grass 

 than by eating the leaves of trees. In accordance 

 with their habits, it is much more migratory, and it 

 does not appear to be either so spirited or so formi- 

 dable as report, makes the other species. 



All these characters indicate an animal which i 

 not so tied to its locality, but which can migrate more 



from place to place according to the season and 

 supply of food ; for forest animals are always more 

 resident and less social than those which keep the 

 open plains. This is the case with very many of the 

 antelopes (see ANTELOPE) ; and it is so with all the 

 ruminantia, in so far as they can be distinguished as 

 animals of the wood and the open field. The causes, 

 so far as they are known, will be found hinted at in 

 the article ANTELOPE, so that there is no necessity 

 fur repeating them here. This species of bison or 

 buffalo, or bonassus, as it has been called by show- 

 men of animals when they wished to make it new 

 ind wonderful, extends over a very considerable range 

 of the American continent. It is not met with in the 

 extreme north, nor much higher than from the &5 to 

 the 60 of latitude, neither has it been found farther 

 to the south than about the parallel of J30. That, 

 however, is a range equal in distance to that of 

 Europe from the Baltic to Gibraltar; and the range 

 in climate, taking the winter at the one extremity and 

 the summer at the other, is greater than from Lapland 

 to Spain; for though the severity <f winter extends 

 farther south in the valley of the Mississippi than it 

 does in Europe generally, the vegetation, and even 

 the animals of the lower part of that valley, hau; a 

 more tropical character than those of the south of 

 Spain. 



In the breadth of this latitudinal range, there are 

 at present but fesv of these animals to the east of the 

 Apalachian chain of mountains, which divide the 

 valley of the Mississippi from the Atlantic states ; 

 and little is known ot the numbers of these or of any 

 other animals on the western side of the Stony 

 Mountains which divide the valley from the countries 

 sloping towards the Pacific. The western side of the 

 great valley, the extensive meadows cr savannahs 

 which are formed along the banks of the river itself, 

 ynd of all the branches which come in from the west, 

 are their chief haunts. These savannahs are in many 

 places liable to be inundated by the rivers, which in 

 these cases leave large stagnant expanses of back 

 water, as the streams have thrown up banks higher 

 than the neighbouring surface. These flooding** 

 occasion a very rich herbage, which continues far into 

 the dry season, and then the bisons collect in vast 

 herds, herds which are quiie unprecedented in the 

 genus. Their tracks from pasture to pasture, and 

 from the pasture to the pool, are as weli beaten as 

 the pathways in a thickly inhabited country. The 

 grass on their pastures is rather rank and coarse, for 

 there are no specimens of the velvety turf of islands 

 which have mild winters, and frequent showets in the 

 summer, in such countries as the centre of America. 

 These tall, coarse, and semiaquatic grasses, which are 

 characteristic of plains flooded by great rivers, whk-n 

 would prevent the more kindly grasses from " tiller- 

 ing," even if the germs of them were there, are in 

 their texture and probably also in their nutritive 

 qualities intermediate between the leaves of trees arid 

 the finer grasses ; if indeed they can be considered as 

 nutritive as the former are in the young and juicy 

 state. Animals which feed upon such grasses gene- 

 rally do so in the morning and evening, when the 

 dews are upon them ; and in such places the forma- 

 tion of dew is often in proportion to the heat of the 

 weather. The bisons follow this course, and during 

 the heat of the day they retreat in great numbers to 

 the pools of water, and stand and enjoy themselves 

 there. 



