rest of the way up. The curve of the horn is generally hidden in the hair, and the only part visible is the straight, terminal spike. Usually the spike points diverge from each other, but often they are parallel, and also perpendicular. In the fourth year, however, the points of the horns begin to curve in ward toward each other, describing equal arcs of the same circle, as if they were going to meet over the top of the head.
In the handsome young "spike" bull in the Museum group, the hair on the shoulders has begun to take on the length, the light color, and tufted appearance of the adult, beginning at the highest point of the hump and gradually spreading. Immediately back of this light patch the hair is long, but dark and woolly in appearance. The leg tufts have doubled in length, and reveal the character of the growth that may be finally expected. The beard has greatly lengthened, as also has the hair upon the bridge of the nose, the forehead, ears, jaws, and all other portions of the head except the cheeks.
The "spike" period of a buffalo is a most interesting one. Like a seventeen-year-old boy, the young bull shows his youth in so many ways it is always conspicuous, and his countenance is so suggestive of a half. bearded youth it fixes the interest to a marked degree. He is active, alert, and suspicious, and when he makes up his mind to run the hunter may as well give up the chase.
By a strange fatality, our spike bull appears to be the only one in any museum, or even in preserved existence, as far as can be ascertained. Out of the twenty-five buffaloes killed and preserved by the Smithsonian espedition, ten of which were adult bulls, this specimen was the only male between the yearling and the adult ages. An effort to procure another entire specimen of this age from Texas yielded only two spike Leads. It is to be sincerely regretted that more specimens representing this very interesting period of the buffalo's life bare 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 | 5 | 8 | ||
| From base of horns around end of nose | 2 | 812 | ||
| 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 lusuriant black beard, or the lofty hump, with its showy covering of
