The hair of the adult bull is by no means as long as I have seen on a bison, although perhaps not many have greatly surpassed it.  It is with the lower animals as with man—­the length of the hairy covering is an individual character only.  I have in my possession a tuft of hair, from the frontlet of a rather small bull bison, which measures 221/2 inches in length.  The beard on the specimen from which this came was correspondingly long, and the entire pelage was of wonderful length and density.

LENGTH OF THE HAIR OF BISON AMERICANUS.

[Measurements, in inches, of the pelage of the specimens composing the group in the National Museum.]

+------------------------------------------------------

-----------------+
|                    |Old    |Old     |Spike   |Young   |Yearling|Young |
|                    |bull,  |cow,    |bull,   |cow,    |calf,   |calf, |
|                    |killed |killed  |killed  |killed  |killed  |four  |
|                    |Dec. 6.|Nov. 18.|Oct. 14.|Oct. 14.|Oct. 31.|months|
|Length of:           |       |        |        |        |        |old.  |
+--------------------+-------+--------+--------+--------+---

-----+------+
|hair on the shoulder|       |        |        |        |        |      |
|(over scapula)      |   33/4  |   43/4   |   31/2   |   31/4   |   3    |  11/2  |
+--------------------+-------+--------+--------+--------+---

-----+------+
|hair on top of hump |   61/2  |   7    |   51/4   |   51/2   |   41/2   |  2   |
+--------------------+-------+--------+--------+--------+---

-----+------+
|hair on the middle  |       |        |        |        |        |      |
|of the side         |   2   |   11/2   |   21/2   |   11/2   |   21/4   |  11/4  |
+--------------------+-------+--------+--------+--------+---

-----+------+
|hair on the         |       |        |        |        |        |      |
|hind quarter        |   13/4  |   11/4   |    3/4   |    3/4   |   2    |  1   |
+--------------------+-------+--------+--------+--------+---

-----+------+
|hair on the         |       |        |        |        |        |      |
|forehead            |  16   |   81/2   |   61/2   |   5    |   31/2   |   1/2  |
+--------------------+-------+--------+--------+--------+---

-----+------+
|the chin beard      |  111/2  |   91/2   |   63/4   |   5    |   5    |  0   |
+--------------------+-------+--------+--------+--------+---

-----+------+
|the breast tuft     |   8   |   81/2   |   8    |   6    |   5    |  3   |
+--------------------+-------+--------+--------+--------+---

-----+------+
|tuft on fore leg    |  101/2  |   8    |   8    |   41/2   |   3    |  11/2  |
+--------------------+-------+--------+--------+--------+---

-----+------+
|the tail tuft       |  19   |  15    |  15    |  13    |   71/2   |  41/2  |
+-----------------------------------------------------------

------------+

Albinism.—­Cases of albinism in the buffalo were of extremely rare occurrence.  I have met many old buffalo hunters, who had killed