CHAPTER VIII. 



TWO BISON' 



Black Beauty, Montana. 



THE American bison, or buffalo, is the 

 best known and most celebrated of all 

 the hoofed animals in America. About its 

 name, the clearest explanation is, I think, giv- 

 en by Mr. W. T. Hornaday, the Director of 

 the New York Zoological Park, in his "Ameri- 

 can Natural History": 



"A true 'buffalo' is an animal with no 

 hump on its shoulders, and is found only in 

 Africa and Asia. Our animal, having a high 

 hump, is really a bison; but, inasmuch as it 

 is known to seventy-three millions of Ameri- 

 cans as the 'buffalo,' it would be quite use- 

 less to attempt to bring about a universal 

 change in its popular name. There is but 

 one living species." 



Among the buffalo, then, in the New York 

 Zoological Park, there is one particularly fine 

 specimen, one of the kings of the herd, called 

 143 



