oulders and hump are similarly clothed, so as to form a curly, felted
mane. This mane in the European species disappears in summer; but in the
American bison it is to a considerable extent persistent.

The bison is now the largest European quadruped, measuring about 10 ft.
long, exclusive of the tail, and standing nearly 6 ft. high. Formerly it
was abundant throughout Europe, as is proved by the fossil remains of
this or a closely allied form found on the continent and in England,
associated with those of the extinct mammoth and rhinoceros. Caesar
mentions the bison as abounding, along with the extinct aurochs or wild
ox, in the forests of Germany and Belgium, where it appears to have been
occasionally captured and afterwards exhibited alive in the Roman
amphitheatres. At that period, and long after, it seems to have been
common throughout central Europe, as we learn from the evidence of
Herberstein in the 16th century. Nowadays bison are found in a truly
wild condition only in the forests of the Caucasus, where they are
specially protected by the Russian government. There is, however, a
herd, somewhat in the condition of park-animals, in the forest of
Byelovitsa, in Lithuania, where it is protected by the tsar, but
nevertheless is gradually dying out. In 1862 the Lithuanian bisons
numbered over 1200, but by 1872 they had diminished to 528, and in 1892
there were only 491. The prince of Pless has a small herd at Promnitz,
his Silesian estate, founded by the gift of a bull and three cows by
Alexander II. in 1855, his herd being the source of the menagerie
supply.

Bison feed on a coarse aromatic grass, and browse on the leaves, shoots,
bark and twigs of trees.

The American bison is distinguished from its European cousin by the
following among other features: The hind-quarters are weaker and fall
away more suddenly, while the withers are proportionately higher.
Especially characteristic is the great mass of brown or blackish brown
hair clothing the head, neck and forepart of the body. The shape of the
skull and horns is also different; the horns themselves being shorter,
thicker, blunter and more sharply curved, while the forehead of the
skull is more convex and the sockets of the eyes are more distinctly
tubular. This species formerly ranged over a third of North America in
countless numbers, but is now practically extinct. The great herd was
separated into a northern and southern division by the completion of
the Un