396 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1887. 



Another change which takes place in the form of the captive buffalo 

 is an arching of the back in the middle, which has a tendency to make 

 the hump look lower at the shoulders and visibly alters the outline of 

 the back. This tendency to "huinp up" the back is very noticeable in 

 domestic cattle and horses during rainy weather. While a buffalo on 

 his native heath would seldom assume such an attitude of dejection and 

 misery, in captivity, especially if it be anything like close confinement, 

 it is often to be observed, and I fear will eventually become a perma- 

 nent habit. Indeed, I think it may be confidently predicted that the 

 time will come when naturalists who have never seen a wild buffalo will 

 compare the specimens composing the National Museuni group with the 

 living representatives to be seen in captivity and assert that the former 

 are exaggerations in both form aud size. 



3. Mounted Specimens in Museums.— Of the "stuffed" specimens to be 

 ^ound in museums, all that I have ever seen outside of the National Mu- 

 seum, and even those within that institution up to 1886, were " stuffed" 

 in reality as well as in name. The skins that have been rammed full of 

 straw or excelsior have lost from 8 to 12 inches in height at the shoul- 

 ders, aud the high and sharp hump of the male has become a huge, 

 thick, rounded mass like the hump of a dromedary, and totally unlike 

 the hump of a bison. It is impossible for any taxidermist to stuff a 

 buffalo-skin with loose materials and produce a specimen which fitly 

 represents the species. The proper height and form of the animal can 

 be secured and retained only by the construction of a manikin, or statue, 

 to carry the skin. In view of this fact, which surely must be apparent 

 to even the most casual observer, it is to be earnestly hoped that here- 

 after no one in authority will ever consent to mount or have mounted a 

 valuable skin of a bison in any other way than over a properly con- 

 structed manikin. 



4. The Calf. — The breeding season of the buffalo is from the 1st of July 

 to the 1st of October. The young cow does not breed until she is three 

 years old, and although two calves are sometimes produced at a birth, 

 one is the usual number. The calves are born in April, May, aud June, 

 aud sometimes, though rarely, as late as the middle of August. The 

 calf follows its mother until it is a year old, or even older. In May, 

 1886, the Smithsonian expedition captured a calf alive, which had been 

 abandoned by its mother because it could not keep up with her. The 

 little creature was apparently between two and three weeks old, and 

 was therefore born about May 1. Unlike the young of nearly all other 

 Bovidce, the buffalo calf during the first months of its existence is clad 

 with hair of a totally different color from that which covers him during 

 the remainder of his life. His pelage is a luxuriant growth of rather 

 long, wavy hair, of a uniform brownish-yellow or "sandy" color (cinna- 

 mon, or yellow ocher, with a shade of Indian yellow) all over the head, 

 body, and tail, in striking contrast with the darker colors of the older 

 animals. On the lower half of the leg it is lighter, shorter, and straight. 



