THE HOLLOW-HORNED RUMINANTS IgI 
coarse grass, on which they nevertheless contrive to keep themselves in condition, feeding in 
the mornings and evenings, and lying down by day to rest among the rocks. 
THE BISON 
THE BISON form a marked group, differing from others of the Ox Tribe. They possess 
fourteen pairs of ribs, while the oxen have only thirteen (the yak has fourteen); and have very 
heavy, massive heads, broader and more convex foreheads than the oxen, longer spinal processes 
on the vertebrze of the front part of the back, and larger muscles to hold the ponderous head, 
causing a hump, which in the American bison is very marked. There are two living species 
of bison, one of which is found in Europe, the other in North America. 
THE EUROPEAN BISON 
This is the most interesting survival of the primitive fauna of the Old World. It is still 
found wild, though protected, in a large forest in Lithuania, the property of the Czar of Russia, 
‘called the Forest of Bielowitza. A few are also left of the purely wild stock in the Caucasus. 
Those in Lithuania have been protected for several centuries, and the herd is numbered from 
time to time. In 1857 there were 1,898 of these bison left; in 1882 there were only 600; 
in 1889 the herd had sunk to 380, but in 1892 it had risen to 491. The presence of 
the bison in the Caucasus had been almost forgotten till Mr. Littledale and Prince Demidoff 
gave accounts of hunting it there quite recently. The ZuBR, as it is called, only survives 
in some very inaccessible parts of the mountains, preserved by the Grand Duke Sergius 
Michaelovitch, in the Kouban district. There it exists as a really wild animal. The dimensions 
of one recently shot were 10 feet from the muzzle to the end of the last vertebra of the 
tail. The Grand Duke has to obtain special permission from the Czar to shoot one whenever 
he goes to the Caucasus. 
This bison seems to have been an inhabitant of most of the forests of Europe and 
Northern Asia; its remains show that it existed in Britain, and it was plentiful in the Black 
Forest in the time of Caesar. It is the largest of all European quadrupeds, measuring as 
much as 10 feet 1 inch from the nose to the root of the tail, and standing nearly 6 feet 
high at the shoulder. Prince Demidoff states his belief that it is found on the southern 
slopes of the Caucasus Range between the hills and the Black Sea. The weight of this bison 
reaches 1,700 lbs. It is now 
rare to see more than five 
or six together. Though the 
animal is so massive, its horns 
are rather small and slender, 
and curve upwards. The 
mane—which, like the rest of 
the coat, is of a uniform rich 
brown—is thick and curly, but 
not developed like that of the 
American bison. 
THE BUFFALOES. 
THE BUFFALOES are so 
far distinct from other 
species of wild cattle that it 
is said they will not inter- 
breed with them; yet one 
species, the INnpIaN Bur- 
FALO, has been domesti- INDIAN HUMPED CATTLE 
cated for a long, though These are often called Zebu in Europe, but the origin of the name is unknown 
