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CHAPTER XXII. 



THE BISON (BISON AMERIGANU8). 



This ruminant mammal belongs in natural history to the family 

 BovidcB and the order Ungulata, i.e. hoofed animals. Bisons are 

 inhabitant's of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, The animals of 

 the latter country differ, however, from their European congeners 

 in many particulars. It is only in a forest of Lithuania that the 

 European bison now exists, and there a remnant of the race is 

 preserved from extinction by the Russian Czars, but their numbers 

 are yearly dwindling and the race deteriorating, for all attempts at 

 domesticating the animals have ended in failure. At one time they 

 were numerous in Prussia and Hungary, and earher still roamed 

 free in the forests of Germany and Switzerland, and in reality 

 over the whole of central Europe, also in the Caucasus and Car- 

 pathian Mountains. Csesar mentions the fact that they abounded 

 in Germany and Belgium, and it was from these two countries that 

 the animals of this species were captured for the sports of the 

 Roman amphitheatre. 



In America the animal is colloquially called a buffalo. To 

 speak of a bison in many parts of that vast country would puzzle 

 the people to identify the beast to which you were referring, but 

 a buffalo is an object of interest to nearly every one, and although 

 scientists correctly contend that this designation is incorrect, the 

 name of buffalo being only applicable to the species found in the 

 East Indies, yet we intend to apply this title to the animal called 

 by some naturalists JBos Americanus, and by others Bos bison. 



Buffaloes are, or rather were, found in the great prairie region 

 extending between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains as far 

 north as latitude 63° or 64°, and as far south as New Mexico. 



