416 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1887. 



sistible impulse, every straggler would be drawn to the common center, 

 and lor miles on every side of the great herd the country would be 

 found entirely deserted. 



At this time the herd itself became a seething mass of activity and 

 excitement. As usual under such conditions, the bulls were half the 

 time chasing the cows, and fighting each other during the other half. 

 These actual combats, which were always of short duration and over in 

 a few seconds after the actual collision took place, were preceded by 

 the usual threatening demonstrations, in which the bull lowers his head 

 until his nose almost touches the ground, roars like a fog-horn until the 

 earth seems to fairly tremble with the vibration, glares madly upon his 

 adversary with half-white eyeballs, and with his forefeet paws up the 

 dry earth and throws it upward in a great cloud of dust high above his 

 back. At such times the mingled roaring — it can not truthfully be de- 

 scribed as lowing or bellowing — of a number of huge bulls unite and 

 form a great volume of sound like distant thunder, which has often been 

 heard at a distance of from 1 to 3 miles. I have even been assured by 

 old plainsmen that under favorable atmospheric conditions such sounds 

 have been heard five miles. 



Notwithstanding the extreme frequency of combats between the bulls 

 during this season, their results were nearly always harmless, thanks 

 to the thickness of the hair and hide on the head and' shoulders, and the 

 strength of the neck. 



Under no conditions was there ever any such thing as the pairing off 

 or mating of male and female buffaloes for any length of time. In the 

 entire process of reproduction the bison's habits were similar to those 

 of domestic cattle. For years the opinion was held by many, in some 

 cases based on misinterpreted observations, that in the herd the identity 

 of each family was partially preserved, and that each old bull main- 

 tained an individual harem and group of progeny of his own. The 

 observations of Colonel Dodge completely disprove this very interest- 

 ing theory ; for at best it was only a picturesque fancy, ascribing to 

 the bison a degree of intelligence which be never possessed. 



At the close of the breeding season the herd quickly settles down to 

 its normal condition. The mass gradually resolves itself into the 

 numerous bands or herdlets of from twenty to a hundred individuals, 

 so characteristic of bison on their feeding grounds, and these gradually 

 scatter in search of the best grass until the herd covers many square 

 miles of country. 



In his search for grass the buffalo displayed but little intelligence or 

 power of original thought. Instead of closely following the divides be- 

 tween water-courses where the soil was best and grass most abundant, 

 he would not hesitate to wander away from good feeding-grounds into 

 barren " bad lauds," cohered with sage-brush, where the grass was very 

 thin and very poor. In such broken country as Montana, Wyoming, 

 and southwestern Dakota, the herds, on reaching the best grazing 



