522 THE ZUBR. 



with short, soft, woolly hair. In summer its coat is of a 

 greyish brown ; about August it displays a shining jet-black 

 tint -, and in November it assumes its winter fur, which is the 

 thickest, longest, and darkest. 



The horns are black, of moderate length, and are turned 

 inward and outward, except at their middle part where they 

 have a perpendicular direction ; from tip to tip, round their 

 curves and over the forehead, they measure four French feet. 

 Those of the six-years-old bull in the Wilna Museum are 

 eighteen inches in length along the external curve, and ten 

 and a half inches in girth at their base. The cow's horns 

 are not so strong as the bull's. There is no dew-lap ; and 

 only the middle of the upper lip and the borders of the nostrils 

 are bare ; the tongue is covered with hard tubercles, and is of 

 a blue colour, as are the lips, gums, and palate ; the eyes have 

 ordinarily a mild expression. The fore-quarters are more 

 robust, and the anterior part of the back is more elevated 

 than the hind- quarters, which are slender ; the ribs are fourteen 

 in number, being one less than in the American bison ; and the 

 tail is terminated by a brush of long and bristly hair, which in 

 young individuals reaches only to the hock joint, but in older 

 ones it extends somewhat below. From that part of the skin 

 and hair which covers the convex portion of the forehead, the 

 zubr emits an odour, between that of musk and violets. This 

 odour is stronger in the bull than in the cow, and during the 

 rutting season it may be perceived at a hundred yards from 

 the herd. 



The favourite haunts of these animals are the swampy banks 

 of the rivers and rivulets which intersect the forest, and from 

 which they seldom wander far. During summer and the warmer 

 part of autumn they select sandy spots -, in winter they keep 

 quiet by day, where the fir-trees are in the thickest abundance, 

 only browsing at night, and finding sustenance in the bark of 

 young trees ; in the spring they resort to neighbouring places 

 where they can obtain herbaceous plants. 



Up to the age of ten or twelve years, the zubrs associate in 



