heads. It is to be sincerely regretted that more specimens representing
this very interesting period of the buffalo's life have not been
preserved, for it is now too late to procure wild specimens.

The following are the post-mortem dimensions of our specimen:

+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| BISON AMERICANUS. |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
|("Spike" bull, two years old; taken October 14, 1886. Montana.)|
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| (_No. 15685, National Museum collection._) |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| | Feet.| Inches. |
|Height at shoulders | 4 | 2 |
|Length, head and body to insertion of tail | 7 | 7 |
|Depth of chest | 2 | 3 |
|Depth of flank | 1 | 7 |
|Girth behind fore leg | 6 | 8 |
|From base of horns around end of nose | 2 | 81/2 |
|Length of tail vertebræ | 1 | |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+

7. _The Adult Bull._--In attempting to describe the adult male in the
National Museum group, it is difficult to decide which feature is most
prominent, the massive, magnificent head, with its shaggy frontlet and
luxuriant black beard, or the lofty hump, with its showy covering of
straw-yellow hair, in thickly-growing locks 4 inches long. But the head
is irresistible in its claims to precedence.