of a different color from that around them.

The other process of shedding takes place on the body and hind quarters,
from which the old hair loosens and drops off in great woolly flakes a
foot square, more or less. The shedding takes place very unevenly, the
old hair remaining much longer in some places than in others. During
April, May, and June the body and hind quarters present a most ludicrous
and even pitiful spectacle. The island-like patches of persistent old
hair alternating with patches of bare brown skin are adorned (?) by
great ragged streamers of loose hair, which flutter in the wind like
signals of distress. Whoever sees a bison at this period is filled with
a desire to assist nature by plucking off the flying streamers of old
hair; but the bison never permits anything of the kind, however good
one's intentions may be. All efforts to dislodge the old hair are
resisted to the last extremity, and the buffalo generally acts as if the
intention were to deprive him of his skin itself. By the end of June, if
not before, the body and hind quarters are free from the old hair, and
as bare as the hide of a hippopotamus. The naked skin has a shiny brown
appearance, and of course the external anatomy of the animal is very
distinctly revealed. But for the long hair on the fore quarters, neck,
and head the bison would lose all his dignity of appearance with his
hair. As it is, the handsome black head, which is black with new hair as
early as the first of May, redeems the animal from utter homeliness.

After the shedding of the body hair, the naked skin of the buffalo is
burned by the sun and bitten by flies until he is compelled to seek a
pool of water, or even a bed of soft mud, in which to roll and make
himself comfortable. He wallows, not so much because he is so fond of
either water or mud, but in self-defense; and when he emerges from his
wallow, plastered with mud from head to tail, his degradation is