The Extermination of the American BisonHornaday, William T. (William Temple)
History
The Extermination of the American Bison
Hornaday, William T. (William Temple)
American bison; Wildlife conservation -- United States -- Sources
Another change which takes place in the form of the captive buffalo is
an arching of the back in the middle, which has a tendency to make the
hump look lower at the shoulders and visibly alters the outline of the
back. This tendency to "hump up" the back is very noticeable in domestic
cattle and horses during rainy weather. While a buffalo on his native
heath would seldom assume such an attitude of dejection and misery, in
captivity, especially if it be anything like close confinement, it is
often to be observed, and I fear will eventually become a permanent
habit. Indeed, I think it may be confidently predicted that the time
will come when naturalists who have never seen a wild buffalo will
compare the specimens composing the National Museum group with the
living representatives to be seen in captivity and assert that the
former are exaggerations in both form and size.
3. _Mounted Specimens in Museums._--Of the "stuffed" specimens to be
found in museums, all that I have ever seen outside of the National
Museum and even those within that institution up to 1886, were "stuffed"
in reality as well as in name. The skins that have been rammed full of
straw or excelsior have lost from 8 to 12 inches in height at the
shoulders, and the high and sharp hump of the male has become a huge,
thick, rounded mass like the hump of a dromedary, and totally unlike the
hump of a bison. It is impossible for any taxidermist to stuff a
buffalo-skin with loose materials and produce a specimen which fitly
represents the species. The proper height and form of the animal can be
secured and retained only by the construction of a manikin, or statue,
to carry the skin. In view of this fact, which surely must be apparent
to even the most casual observer, it is to be earnestly hoped that here
no one in authority will ever consent to mount or have mounted a
valuable skin of a bison in any other way than over a properly
constructed manikin.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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