BISON 3S9 



for the sake of the lichen, or " reindeer-moss," which thrives in spite of the cold, 

 returning to the shore in spring, when still very fat. Some weeks later an ice-crust 

 covers the snow, and makes it difficult for the reindeer to ascend the mountains ; 

 and they then grow so thin that the flesh is scarcely eatable. In summer reindeer 

 fatten again very quickly, and in autumn are fatter than ever. In Siberia, as 

 in Spitsbergen, reindeer have regular migrations. In eastern Siberia thousands are 

 met with, in parties of 200 or 300, and sometimes these form immense herds travelling 

 towards the forests, in which they spend the winter. Slowly and with measured 

 steps they walk along, led by one of the lai'gest females, their antlers forming a 

 leafless moving forest. These winter migrations may in some degree explain the 

 occurrence of remains of reindeer in southern Europe, such remains being found 

 as far south as the valleys of the Dordogne and Garonne in France with those of 

 the hippopotamus, which can hardly have lived in a cold climate. 



Like the elk, the bison (Bos bonasus) ranged widelv over 



Bison. . 



Europe in former times. Being our first representative of the 

 hollow-horned ruminants, it may be well to mention that the horns of that group 

 grow on bony cores rising from the skull, and are thus quite unlike the solid and 

 branching antlers of the deer. Although the lateral pair may be wanting, there 

 are generally four toes to each foot, the two smaller of which are of no importance 

 in walking. With the exception of a few North American forms, the group is 

 restricted to the Eastern Hemisphere; their largest representatives being the ox 

 tribe, of the genus Bos, the appearance of which is familiar to all. 



With the exception of the American bison and the domesticated breeds, the 

 ox tribe is confined to the Old World, the only truly wild European species at the 

 present day being the bison, which, with its American cousin, forms a special sub- 

 group, distinguished by the thick, short, cylindrical horns, a relatively low, wide, 

 and arched forehead, and withers raised into a sort of hump from which the back 

 gradually slopes to the hind-quarters. The great development of the fore-quarters, 

 giving considerable height at the shoulder, is all the more striking, since the hind 

 part of the head, the neck, shoulders, and chest are covered with long dark brown 

 hair, reaching down to the fore-legs, and continued from the back to the root of 

 the tail as a kind of crest. In summer this mass of hair, together with the short, 

 somewhat curly and lighter hair of the rest of the body, is shed in large sheets, and 

 at first replaced by quite short mouse-grey hair which makes the skin look almost 

 bare. The tail is not very long, with a tuft at the end. The two members of the 

 group are so closely related that they are best described by pointing out their 

 differences. The European species, which stands about 6 feet at the withers, and 

 is 11 feet 8 inches in length, is the largest land-animal of Europe, being in the 

 main less clumsily built than its American cousin, and standing a little higher and 

 wider in the hips, with much more powerful hind-quarters. The horns are longer 

 and more curved, the forehead is less arched, the hair of the fore-quarters not so 

 long and close, and the tail longer and less bushy than in the American bison, 

 which, by its masses of hair, appears to be a much more formidable animal than is 

 really the ease. 



The bison must not be mistaken for the aurochs, which as a wild animal is 

 now extinct, although represented by domesticated cattle. The chief haunts of 



