Nature neighbors, embracing birds, plants, animals, minerals, in natural colors by color photography, containing articles by Gerald Alan Abbott, Dr. Albert Schneider, William Kerr Higley...and other (14751066455)

Identifier: natureneighborse05bant (find matches)
Title: internetarchivebookimages/tags/book...
Year: 1914 (1910s)
Authors: Banta, Nathaniel Moore, 1867- Schneider, Albert, 1863- Higley, William Kerr, 1860-1908 Abbott, Gerard Alan
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: Chicago, American Audobon association
Contributing Library: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign



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n is probably the mostfamous of American animals. Its large size and massiveappearance, its enormous numbers, and its value as a sourceof food and clothing have contributed to its fame and alsoto its extermination, for no hunter is ever content to huntsmall game if large is to be found. The bison should bedistinguished from the buffalo, which is found in Africaand Asia, in that it possesses a marked hump on its shoul-ders. In habits it is similar to the domestic cow, for itstooth structure, its feeding habits, such as browsing andcud-chewing, and its general anatomy are closely similar tothat of the domestic animal. At the present time thereare perhaps fifteen hundred buffaloes in captivity in variouspublic or private collections; but as recently as 1880 theyexisted by the hundreds of thousands in the Western plainsand mountain valleys. The following extract from Homa-days American Natural History will give an idea of theenormous nimibers which at one time existed in the UnitedStates:
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A NOTED HOOFED GROUP 103 It is safe to say that no man ever saw in one day agreater panorama of animal life than that related by Col.R. I. Dodge, in IMay, 1871, when he drove for twenty-fivemiles along the Arkansas River, through the unbroken herdof buffaloes. By my calculation, he actually saw on thatmemorable day nearly half a million head. It was thegreat Southern herd, on its annual spring migration north-ward, and it must have contained one and one-half millions.In those days mighty hosts of buffaloes frequently stoppedor derailed railway trains and obstructed the progress ofboats on the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers. The average height of these animals at the shoulder issomewhat less than six feet; the females are usually muchsmaller than the males, for the animals are polygamous.At the breeding season they formerly gathered in enormous*herds and all was excitement, owing to the conflicts of thevarious bulls. During the winter they migrated southwardand in summer northward. Th