File:The big game of North America. Its habits, habitats, haunts, and characteristics; how, when, and where to hunt it (1890) (14569234687).jpg

Identifier: biggameofnortham00shie (find matches)
Title: The big game of North America. Its habits, habitats, haunts, and characteristics; how, when, and where to hunt it ..
Year: 1890 (1890s)
Authors: Shields, G. O. (George O.), 1846-1925, ed
Subjects: Hunting Game and game-birds
Publisher: Chicago and New York, Rand, McNally & company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation

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ords of our planet, was chronicled another such a story ofmultitudinous slaughter, of any part of the brute creation,as is contained in that of the extermination of the Amer-ican Buffalo. They have vanished from the face of advanc-ing civilization as mist-clouds vanish before the rising sun.A little handful of their number, wisely j)rotected by thefostering care of the United States Government, yet find anInsecure retreat among the mountain fastnesses of the Yel-lowstone National Park; yet the mighty herds which buta few short years ago swarmed innumerable upon the greatplains are to-day extinct. Their bleaching bones have longsince been gathered for fertilizers, and the furious rain-storms of the plains are fast obliterating all traces of theirold wallows. Yet the American Bison was a hard3^ animal, and, untilthe coming of the European, was more than a match forWolves, Bears, and for the mvriads of Indians who fedupon him. The color of the Buffalo was a dark brown, verg- omr CD m>
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THE BUFFALO. 281 ing upon black; his muzzle, horns, and liools, black; hishead and shoulders massive in size—the shoulders risingin a hump a foot or more in height; his hips low andsmall, but well rounded; his tail shorter than that of thedomestic ox, slim and smooth, ti2:)ped with a tuft of long,black hair; his legs, below the knees, wonderfully slenderfor so huge an animal; and the weight of a fully developedmale probablj^ not less than two thousand pounds. His horns were short, and large at the base, taperingrapidly to a point, and curved in the best slia^^e for attackor defense, as many an untrained horse found to his cost:and these formidable weapons were, in the case of the male,almost completely hidden in the mass of long, curly, blackhair w^liich enveloi)ed his head, neck, and shoulders, andwhich gave to him, when seen in front, a peculiarly Lion-like and very formidable appearance. The female, in shape of body, resembled the male—highat the top of the shoulders and low at

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