THE EXTERMINATION OF THE AMERICAN BISON. 415 



At tbe New Orleans Exposition, m 1884-'85, the Territory of Dakota 

 exhibited, amongst other Western quadrupeds, the mounted skin of a 

 two-year-old buffalo which might fairly be called an albino. Although 

 not really white, it was of a uniform dirty cream-color, and showed not 

 a trace of the bison's normal color on any part of its body. 



Lieut. Col. S. C. Kellogg, U. S. Army, has on deposit in the National 

 Museum a tanned skin which is said to have come from a buffalo. It 

 is from an animal about one year old, and the hair upon it, which is 

 short, very curly or wavy, and rather coarse, is pure white. Iu length 

 and texture the hair does not in any one respect resemble the hair of 

 a yearling buffalo save in one particular, — along the median line of the 

 neck and hump there is a rather long, thin mane of hair, which has the 

 peculiar woolly appearance of genuine buffalo hair on those parts. On 

 the shoulder portions of the skin the hair is as short as on the hind 

 quarters. I am inclined to believe this rather remarkable specimen 

 came from a wild half-breed calf, the result of a cross between a white 

 domestic cow and a buffalo bull. At one time it was by no means un- 

 common for small bunches of domestic cattle to enter herds of buffalo 

 and remain there permanently. 



I have been informed that the late General Marcy possessed a white 

 buffalo skin. If it is still in existence, and is really white, it is to be 

 hoped that so great a rarity may find a permanent abiding place in 

 some museum where the remains of Bison americanus are properly ap- 

 preciated. 



Y. The Habits of the Buffalo. 



The history of the buffalo's daily life and habits should begin with 

 the "running season." This period occupied the months of August 

 and September, and was characterized by a degree of excitement and 

 activity throughout the entire herd quite foreign to the ease-loving and 

 even slothful nature which was so noticable a feature of the bison's 

 character at all other times. 



The mating season occurred when the herd was on its summer range. 

 The spring calves were from two to four months old. Through con- 

 tinued feasting on the new crop of buffalo-grass and bunch-grass — the 

 most nutritious in the world, perhaps — every buffalo in the herd had 

 grown round sided, fat, and vigorous. The faded and weather beaten 

 suit of winter hair had by that time fallen off and given place to the 

 new coat of dark gray and black, and, excepting for the shortness of 

 his hair, the buffalo was in prime condition. 



During the "running season," as it was called by the plainsmen, 

 the whole nature of the herd was completely changed. Instead of 

 being broken up into countless small groups and dispersed over a vast 

 extent of territory, the herd came together in a dense and confused 

 mass of many thousand individuals, so closely congregated as to actu- 

 ally blacken the face of the landscape, As if by a general and irre- 



