North America . th a largerhead and a prominent hump on the shoulders (Fig. 31).The hind quarters are small in comparison with the mas-sive head and shoulders, and appear weak. The head,neck, shoulders, and fore legs are covered with thickmatted hair, at times if> inches long and of a dark-browncolour merging into black. The straight Mack hair be-neath the chin of the bull is usually sorne [O inches inlength, and as the animal carries its head low. frequentlysweeps the ground. Back of the medial portion of thebody the hair is short and of a yellow ish-brow 11 colour, orbetween dark umber an
North America . th a largerhead and a prominent hump on the shoulders (Fig. 31).The hind quarters are small in comparison with the mas-sive head and shoulders, and appear weak. The head,neck, shoulders, and fore legs are covered with thickmatted hair, at times if> inches long and of a dark-browncolour merging into black. The straight Mack hair be-neath the chin of the bull is usually sorne [O inches inlength, and as the animal carries its head low. frequentlysweeps the ground. Back of the medial portion of thebody the hair is short and of a yellow ish-brow 11 colour, orbetween dark umber and a living-liver brown. as Audu-bon says. There is much variation in colour, hdwever, anddistinct varieties have been stated to exist. The horns. 2 76 NORTH AMERICA hoofs, and a bare space about the nostrils and mouth areblack. The weight of a fully grown bull is about 2,000 pounds,and of a cow 1,200 pounds. The boundaries of the region in which the bison hasbeen seen by white men, together with the dates of its. Fig. 32.—Range of the Bison. extermination in various sections of the country, etc., areshown in Fig* 32. In about 1870 the vast herd whichranged over the treeless plateaus and Prairie plains betweenthe Rio Grande and Great Slave Lake was divided, owingto the great slaughter that occurred in the vicinity of theCentral Pacific Railroad, into two herds, one of which hadits summer range in Montana and neighbouring territory, ANIMAL LIFE 277 but moved northward in summer into Canada, while theother fed on the plains of the west Texas region in winterand moved northward in summer as far as southern Ne-braska. In each case a southward movement was begunas winter approached, but these seasonal changes scarcelywarrant the name of migrations. The number of these large animals living between theMississippi and Rocky Mountains previous to 1872, evenafter being hunted for centuries by the Indians and killedin constantly increasing numbers each year by whitemen for half a century
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