116 ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 
The American Bisons generally prefer the open 
plains, the long rank herbage of which affords them 
their principal support. They feed in the morning and 
evening, and indulge themselves in bathing in the 
marshy swamps during the heat of the day, seldom 
seeking the shelter of the forest unless when attacked. 
On these occasions they almost invariably take to 
flight, seldom trusting to their unwieldy strength for 
their defence. They are extremely fleet, and their sense 
of smell is so acute as to enable them to scent an 
enemy at a very considerable distance. They frequently 
however become a prey to the wolves and grisly bears ; 
and still more frequently to the savage tribes of Indians, 
who subsist almost wholly on the produce of the chase. 
Their beef is said to be excellent. 
Our specimen, a very large male, was purchased from 
a showman, by whom it had been exhibited, like others 
of its species, under the classical name of the Bonassus, 
to which (any more than to that of Bison, unless 
accompanied by some qualifying epithet), we need 
hardly say, it could have no real claim. It died soon 
after its transfer to the Society, apparently im conse- 
quence of the sudden change operating upon a habit 
already enfeebled by chronic disease, and has lately 
been replaced by a young female, figured below, which 
was presented by the Hudson’s Bay Company. 
