Title: Brehm's Life of animals : a complete natural history for popular home instruction and for the use of schools. Mammalia
Identifier: brehmslifeofanim1896breh (find matches)
Year: 1896 (1890s)
Authors: Brehm, Alfred Edmund, 1829-1884; Pechuel-Loesche, Edward, 1840-1913; Haacke, Wilhelm, 1855-1912; Schmidtlein, Richard
Subjects: Mammals; Animal behavior
Publisher: Chicago : Marquis
Contributing Library: Internet Archive
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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THE HORXED AXIMALS—OX TRIBE. 475 tamed animals, the flesh of which, as we believe, is sufficient to provide the wigwams of the Indians into all eternity." Freiherr Max von Thielmann, who hunted in the far west in 1S75, recorded even at that date a differ- ent experience. He expressed it in the following words: "The blame for greater part of the extermi- nation of the Buffalo may be laid at the door of the three railroads, which traverse the prairie from the Missouri to the Rocky Mountains. In the begin- ning of this decade (the seventies) successful hunts could be arranged between the Union Pacific and the Kansas Pacific roads, and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe road sent 200,000 skins east during the first year of its existence; but now the Buffalo has per- their offspring, until the latter are strong enough to join the herd. From this time on the bulls assume the protectorship of the calves, though the latter are wont to follow their mothers faithfully, until they are supplanted by their younger brothers or sisters. Physical Features The Bison moves with considerable . and Character- agility in spite of its clumsy appear- isticsoftheBison. ance; notwithstanding the shortness of its legs it covers considerable distances in a brief time. Its movements are curiously abrupt, and when hurried, the animals describe queer wavy lines of motion, produced by uplifting the bulk of the body alternately in front and behind. The Bison swims with the same vigor and endurance which
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THE GAYAL. A noble handsome species of Oxen found both wild and domesticated in the mountainous regions of .Assam from eastern Bengal east to Burmah. The figure, well shown in the picture, suggests strength, and besides the massive body the broad horns are especially noteworthy features of the animal. (Bosfronta and all the country forehead and thick manently disappeared from the territory inclosed by these roads, and also from the strips of land skirting the two outermost lines to the north and south, which are broad enough to require a journey of several days to cross them. A few herds only still cross the tracks on their migrations northward in the spring and southward in the fall of the year." During the months of August and September, the herds become excited; they draw more closely to- gether and form a swarming mass. The bulls drive the cows onward, meet and engage in fights, until they in their turn are crowded away by others. The calves, one and not infrequently two, at a birth, make their appearance from March to Jul)', and sometimes as late as August. Wherever it is possible, the cows retreat to a sheltered place, and stay there with characterize its movements in general; and it enters the water and crosses wide streams without the slightest hesitancy. The voice is a dull growl, par- taking more of the nature of a deep guttural roar than of the lowing sound made by others of the Ox family. When thousands simultaneously lift their voices, the deep booming sound which results has been likened to distant peals of thunder. Among the Bison's perceptive senses those of smell and hearing rank first. In its mental qualities it does not differ from its other relatives. It is little gifted, good-natured and timid, incapable of rapid excitement, but when it is irritated it is apt to forget all considerations which generally influence it, and it will then oppose an enemy with courage. Cap- tive Bisons show, more than wi4d ones, that their

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