166 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



fair understanding of the present condition of the species in a 

 wild state. 



In December, 1886, the Smithsonian Expedition left about 

 fifteen Buffaloes alive in the bad lands of the Missouri-Yellowstone 

 divide, at the head of Big Porcupine Creek. In 1887 three of 

 these were killed by cowboys, and in 1888 two more ; the last 

 death recorded being that of an old bull killed near Billings. 

 There are probably eight or ten stragglers still remaining in that 

 region, hiding in the wildest and most broken tracts of the bad 

 lands, as far as possible from the cattle ranches, and where even 

 cowboys seldom go, save on a round up. From the fact that no 

 other Buffaloes, at least so far as can be learned, have been killed 

 in Montana during the last two years, I am convinced that the 

 bunch referred to are the last representatives of the species 

 remaining in Montana. 



In the spring of 1886 Mr. B. C. Winston, while on a hunting 

 trip about 75 miles west of Grand Rapids, Dakota, saw seven 

 Buffaloes, — five adult animals and two calves, — of which he killed 

 one, a large bull, and caught a calf alive. 



On September 11th, 1888, a solitary bull was killed three miles 

 from the town of Oates, in Dickey County. There are still 

 three individuals in the unsettled country lying between that 

 point and the Missouri, which are undoubtedly the only wild 

 representatives of the race east of the Missouri River. 



On April 28th, 1887, Dr. William Stephenson, of the United 

 States Army, wrote me as follows from Pilot Butte, about thirty 

 miles north of Rock Springs, Wyoming : — 



' There are undoubtedly Buffalo within 50 or 60 miles of here, 

 two having been killed out of a band of eighteen some ten days 

 since by cowboys, and another band of four seen near there. I 

 hear from cattlemen of their being seen every year north and 

 north-east of here.' 



This band was seen once in 1888. In February, 1889, Hon. 

 Joseph M. Carey, member of Congress from Wyoming, received 

 a letter informing him that this band of Buffaloes, consisting of 

 twenty-six head, had been seen grazing in the Red Desert of 

 Wyoming, and that the Indians were preparing to attack it. At 

 Judge Carey's request the Indian Bureau issued orders which it 

 was hoped would prevent the slaughter. So, until further deve- 

 lopments, we have the pleasure of recording the presence of 

 twenty-six wild Buffaloes in Southern Wyoming. 



