524 THE ZUBR. 



prefer those which grow in swampy places, as several of the 

 umbelliferous plants, as well as a species of plume thistle 

 (Cnicus oleraceus], common ling, and several species of crow- 

 foot ; and of grasses, they prefer the reed bent- grass (Agrostis 

 arundinaced) , and the northern holy-grass. Their selecting these 

 plants in particular, is an additional indication that their natural 

 haunts are the marshy plains. In their present domain, they 

 could not well survive the winter, by means only of the nourish- 

 ment they are then able to procure for themselves; hence during 

 that season they are supplied at certain places with hay, and 

 if the stacks are not well secured they destroy much more than 

 they consume, by thrusting their heads deeply into the mass 

 to obtain the most fragrant part of it. 



In the rutting season, the zubrs are particularly playful, 

 and delight in uprooting young trees, sometimes to the injury 

 of their horns. At this period, however, those " melancholy 

 malecontents," the hypocondriacal old bulls, even such as have 

 attained their thirtieth year, return to the herd, evince consi- 

 derable excitement, make indiscriminate war with their own 

 kind, and three-years-old bulls and cows are not unfrequently 

 killed by them. 



The French dictionaries of natural history state the period 

 of gestation at eleven months, Bojanus at nine, and Eickwald 

 at seven or eight. They calve about the close of March, and 

 generally have only one calf, but the most vigorous sometimes 

 have twins. The calf, as soon as its coat is dry, follows its 

 mother. Eickwald says, the bulls drive it away from the cow 

 at the beginning of the next rutting season, which statement 

 implies that the calf suckles only five months, or five months 

 and a half ; but Jarocki tells us that it is suckled for a whole 

 year, and this seems more probable, for the gamekeepers know 

 with precision that the cows calve only once in three years. 



* It has been asserted that they feed chiefly on the sweet-scented vernal- 

 grass (AnthoxantJium odoratum], and to which some authors have attributed 

 the animal's musky smell ; but the plant is not found in the forest of 

 Bialowicza. 



