NORTH AMERICA. 73 



COMPARATIVE SIZE OF ANIMALS OF NORTH AMERICA. 



1. Bison. 2. Bloose. 3. Badger. 4. Grizzly Bear. 5. Owl. 6. 

 Pinnated Grouse. 7. Rooky Mountain Goat. 8. Turkey Buzzard. 9. 

 Musk Ox. 10. American Elk. II. Antelope. 12. Ruffed Grouse. 

 13. Wild Cat. 14. Prairie Marmot. 15. Virginia Deer. Ki. Rocky 

 Mountain Sheep. 17. Prairie Wolf. 18. Black Tailed Deer. 19. 

 Raccoon. 20. Opossum. 21. Alligator. 22. Wild Turkey. 23. Ea- 

 gle. 24. Rattlesnake. 



tnd at bay. It r'eeds in the vast prairies of the west in herds of several thousands, which are 

 usually led by a bull, remarkable for strength and fierceness. While feeding, the bisons are 

 scattered over a great extent of country, but when they move in mass, they form a dense column, 

 which, once in motion, is scarcely to be impeded. Their march is seldom interrupted even by 

 rivers, across which they swim without hesitation, nearly in the order that they traverse the 

 plains. When flying before their pursuers, it would be in vain for the foremost to halt, as the 

 throng in the rear still rushes onward, and the leaders must advance. The Indians take advan- 

 tage of this circumstance to destroy great quantities of this favorite game ; luring a herd to the 

 vicinity of a precipice, they terrify them by shouts and artifices, until they drive them headlong 

 down the descent. 



The following account of the Bison is furnished by Dr. Richardson : 



" At the period when the Europeans began to make settlements in North America, this animal 

 was occasionally met with on the Atlantic coast ; but even then it appears to have been rare to the 

 eastward of the Appalachian Mountains ; for Lawson has thought it to be a fact worth recording, 



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