472 



THE CLOVEN-HOOFED ANIMALS. 



winter it prefers higher and drier regions. Very old 

 bulls live in solitude but the younger members of 

 the herd consort in companies of fifteen or twenty 

 in summer and of thirty to fifty in winter. Every 

 herd occupies its permanent domicile and always re- 

 turns to it when the search for food has terminated. 

 The Bison Semi- The Bisons are active both by day 



Nocturnal in and by night, but like best to graze in 

 its Habits. the evening and morning hours, and 

 sometimes also by night. Herbage, leaves, buds and 

 bark constitute their food; they strip the trees as 

 high as they can reach, and bend young, flexible trees 

 down, by straddling them, in order to reach the top, 

 which they generally destroy entirely. The ashtree 

 furnishes their favorite diet, as they seem to prefer 

 its succulent bark to that of any other species; trees 

 with spiny or thorny foliage are avoided by them. 

 In winter they feed almost exclusively on bark, twigs 

 and buds of the trees within their reach and also 

 probably on lichens and dry grass. The hay crop of 

 the meadows in the forest of Bialowitch is stored 

 away for them, and they sometimes possess them- 

 selves of that belonging to farmers on the outskirts 

 of the wood by breaking down the fences. Fresh 

 water is a necessity with them. 

 The Bison an Ani- Though the Bisons produce upon the 



mal of Speed beholder the impression of heavy and 

 and Endurance, lumbering animals, they appear suf- 

 ficiently active, when their movements can be fairly 

 seen. Their ordinary gait is a rapid walk; their run- 

 ning pace is an awkward but speedy gallop, the head 

 being carried very low, and the tail uplifted and 

 stretched out behind. They wade and swim through 

 bogs and rivers with ease. Among their senses of 

 perception that of smell ranks highest; sight and 

 hearing are less acute; taste and touch attain ordi- 

 nary development. Their disposition and character 

 change with age. Young Bisons are lively and play- 

 ful creatures; they are moderately good-natured, and 

 though they are not exactly gentle and peaceable, 

 they are not vicious. Old Bisons, however, espe- 

 cially old bulls, are dignified if not sullen in their 

 bearing, of an irritable, violent temper and averse to 

 trifling or play. Generally they ignore those who do 

 not annoy them, but the slightest cause may arouse 

 their ire and render them formidable. In summer 

 they always shun Man, but in winter they do not 

 give way to anybody, and it has sometimes hap- 

 pened that travelers through their haunts have had 

 to wait a long time before it pleased a Bison to re- 

 move from the path he occupied and which the way- 

 farer wished to travel, there being no room to pass 

 by the animal. A fierce, defiant, violent temper also 

 characterizes this species of wild Ox. Younger in- 

 dividuals are always more timid than the old bulls, 

 some among which, especially those leading a soli- 

 tary life, may develop into serious plagues of the 

 neighborhood which they infest. It seems to afford 

 them a special pleasure to provoke battles with the 

 human species. 



At certain seasons the bulls engage in fights, per- 

 haps beginning in play, but ending in a very serious 

 manner. The animals rush frantically at each other 

 and clash their horns with so much violence that it 

 seems surprising that they do not break from the 

 force of the collision. 



Propaga- The calves of the Bison species are 



tion of the born singly, generally in May or 



Bison. August. Prior to the appearance of 



her calf the cow separates from the herd and selects 



a suitable secluded spot in the thickest of the wood 



or in some quiet, peaceful locality. There she keeps 

 herself and her calf in hiding during the first few 

 days after its birth, and defends the little one with 

 extraordinary courage in case of danger. During its- 

 early youth the calf, in the presence of an enemy 

 seeks safety by crouching close to the ground; it 

 pricks and nervously twitches its ears, dilates its- 

 nostrils and eyes, and anxiously watches the foe, 

 while the mother prepares for the encounter. The 

 Man or beast that approaches a Bison cow at such 

 a moment does so at his peril, for she rushes upon 

 an adversary without hesitation. The calves are 

 pretty, prepossessing animals, though they very 

 early exhibit indications of what they will become 

 in old age. Their growth is very slow, and they 

 probably attain their full size only in their eighth or 

 ninth year. The age to which Bisons may usually 

 attain is believed to range between thirty and fifty 

 years. Cows die about ten years younger than bulls, 

 but with the latter blindness generally supervenes in 

 old age; they lose their teeth, become unable to bite 

 off and masticate young twigs or otherwise provide 

 for their sustenance, waste away and finally succumb 

 to the lack of nourishment. 



Hunting the These powerful animals are perfectly 



Bison a Royal able to defend themselves from their 



Pastime. adversaries. Bears and Wolves may 



endanger the life of a calf, but only when the mother 



has lost her life by some accident, and the calf is 



unprotected. 



In former times Bison hunting was the favorite 

 sport of kings, and many such royal hunts have 

 taken place in the forest of Bialowitch, and as late 

 as i860 the Emperor of Russia gave a hunt in which 

 he himself shot six, and the Princes Charles and 

 Albrecht of Prussia killed eight Bisons. 



I have seen and closely observed several European 

 Bisons in different zoological gardens, and have in- 

 formed myself in regard to them. These animals are 

 all alike, and however kindly maybe their demeanor 

 in youth their natural ferocity breaks out in advanced 

 age and then even their keepers dare not trust them. 

 Even at their best they are obstinate and difficult to 

 manage, though they gradually come to treat their 

 friends with some degree of toleration. Red is said 

 to excite these animals to anger, and hence a person 

 clad in bright colors runs some risk of being at- 

 tacked by them. 



Several naturalists have advanced the opinion 

 that the Bison was a factor in the origin of several 

 of the domestic breeds of Cattle, but recent expe- 

 riences seem to show this theory to be fallacious. 

 A violent animosity exists between the Bicon and 

 domestic Cattle, and even where young Bison calves 

 and tame Cattle are kept together, as has been done 

 in the forest of Bialowitch, their relations are any- 

 thing but friendly. 



The American The same fate which overtook the 

 Bison also Almost European Bison in the course of 

 Extinct. centuries, befell its only relative, the 



American Bison, in an incredibly short time: one 

 might say, during a single decade. Only one gener- 

 ation ago, millions of these huge animals roved over 

 immense tracts of land in North America — to-day 

 there are but a few hundreds of them left at various 

 points throughout the country, and even those few 

 now in existence would soon disappear did not the 

 general government strenuously protect them. His- 

 tory knows no other instance like this, nor will it 

 have to record one in its future annals, of harmless, 

 useful animals being methodically shot down and 



