Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 2 (1898).djvu/406

374 three-quarter bred bull seven years old, and one three-quarter bred bull five years old. Four calves of last year, two of them pure, make up the lot.

"It is now well-nigh thirty years since the first Buffalo calves were brought in by Indians for James Mackay, of Silver Heights. A little later, when the herd had increased to about twenty, they were taken to Stony Mountain, where, having been bought by the late Col. Bedson, with the exception of the few claimed by Sir Donald Smith as his share, the bulk of the herd, including a few cross-breeds, were sold to "Buffalo Jones," who was then speculating on getting up a company to breed crosses on domestic cows for the sake of the robes, as well as the extra value of the meat. Besides a few owned by private individuals, there is still a wild herd preserved by the U.S. Government in the National Park at the head of the Yellowstone. In the Smithsonian Institute at Washington is a splendidly mounted group of stuffed specimens set up by Mr. Hornaday, who was sent out in 1883 to procure for that purpose a few specimens out of a small remnant then existing in the Bad Lands on the Upper Missouri. Some of the finest specimens were killed on that expedition. The bull stands 6 ft. high, and is set up just as he stood at bay, after he had been shot by Hornaday, and his leg broken. Millions of Buffalo were killed between 1873 and 1883, and some of the higher valleys looked white all summer with the skeletons of countless Buffalo that had been killed for the sake of their hides, the meat going to feast the wolves."

the May number of the 'Osprey,' Mr. George Harlow Clarke, the Naturalist to the Peary Polar Expedition, 1893–4, contributes an article on "The Birds of Bowdoin Bay." Bowdoin Bay is situated far up the western shore of Greenland. It is " some five miles wide, extends inland a distance of about twelve miles due north from Inglefield Gulf, an arm of the Polar Sea penetrating the coast between Smith Sound and Baffin Bay." "A list, based on observations covering a period of twelve consecutive months, of the birds frequenting the bay comprises nineteen authenticated species."

Some others were seen, but as yet they can only hypothetically be accorded a place in the limited ornithology of the bay. The most conspicuous bird is the Haven, and scarcely less numerous is the Rock Ptarmigan (Lagopus rupestris reinhardti). These birds are indisputably resident species, and the Eskimos aver that the Snowy Owl and Greenland Gyr-falcon also "brave the vigorous sunless winter of that latitude. Prominent as summer visitors are the Mandt's Guillemot, Little Auk, Kittiwake and Glaucous Gulls, Eiders—King and Northern—Old Squaw, Snowflake, and Greenland Redpoll." The Red-throated Diver rears its young in that locality; the Wheatear was first seen on August 21st, 1893, but on July 4th, 1894, a nest containing seven eggs was found on the shore of Inglefield Gulf, a few