FOOTNOTES:
[133] This bird, which is nearly allied to the jay, or the roller, has not yet been mentioned by either Townsend or Audubon. In the form of the bill, its figure, and mode of living, it much resembles the nutcracker; only the nostrils are not covered with bristles, like those of the jay and crow, but lie quite free on the fore part of the skin of the nose. The angulus mentalis comes out further than in niscifraga. As this bird seems to form a new genus, I call it, from the above-mentioned peculiarity, Gymnorhinus cyano cephalus.—Maximilian.
[134] See p. [129] for illustration of head of Cervus macrotis.—Ed.
[135] The American buffalo or bison has been supposed to be, if not identical, very nearly akin, to the bison (wisent or zuhr), which still exists in Russia; but, from all that I know of the latter, the two animals appear to me to form two entirely different species. The American buffalo is characterized by its hair and colour. Its head is very large, and is carried low, its neck short, the withers very high, the fore part of the body colossal and broad, the back part, in proportion, small and weak, the tail rather short, very smooth, with short hairs, and a tuft at the end. During the summer months, the head, neck, shoulders, fore part of the body, and thighs, till behind the shoulder blade, are covered with longer hair, which there ceases, and is bounded by a strictly defined line from the hinder part of the body, the hair of which is short and smooth, looking, altogether, like a shorn poodle. The forehead and upper part of the head have smooth hair from twelve to eighteen inches long, and that on the fore legs is equally long, hanging down to the middle of the shins. In the winter the hair of the hinder part of the body is rather longer, with a thicker wool under it.
The prints, representing the wisent or zuhr of the Poles, which is still to be found in the forest of Bialowieza, represent that animal as very different from the American buffalo. The figure given by Bojanus (Tab. XXI.) represents the head of a bull six years old, without any long hair; and so does Tab. XX., where the hair of the forehead of the American buffalo is twelve inches long, and the beard hangs down to a great length. In these and other prints there is no long hair on the fore legs; while the tail, in Bojanus's prints, has much longer hair than that of the American animal. None of them have the long hair on the fore part of the body, nor the strictly defined limit of this longer hair.—Maximilian.
[136] Among these animals there are some that are very large and fat, with longer horns than the others; these are such as have been castrated by the Indians when calves. They are said to become extremely fat and heavy.—Maximilian.
[137] The cry of the male elk, in the rutting season, is very singular, and seems to be in no due proportion to the large, heavy animals. It is a shrill whistle, which, for the most part, runs regularly up the scale, and then suddenly falls to a low, guttural note. The notes perfectly resemble a run upwards on the flageolet.—Maximilian.
[138] See Plate 80, in the accompanying atlas, our volume xxv.—Ed.
[139] Unfortunately, this fine skin, which, with much trouble, I got up to Fort Clarke, was lost when the Assiniboin steamer was burnt in the summer of 1834.—Maximilian.
[140] See Plate 68, in the accompanying atlas, our volume xxv.—Ed.