after the bull had fallen, and the skull, with mane
attached, lay discarded on the plain. While always, even when nesting on
the ground, the wool of the Buffalo was probably used as lining of the
black-bird's nest. I know of one case where an attendant bird that was
too crippled to fly when autumn came, wintered in the mane of a large
Buffalo bull. It gathered seed by day, when the bull pawed up the snow,
and roosted at night between the mighty horns, snuggling in the wool,
with its toes held warm against the monster's blood-hot neck.

In most of the Northwest the birds have found a poor substitute for the
Buffalo in the range-cattle, but oh! how they must miss the wool.

[Illustration: XVIII. Moose--the Widow
_Drawing by E. T. Seton_]

[Illustration: XIX. Buffalo Groups (a) Bull and Cow at Banff; (b)
Yellowstone Bulls

_Photos by G. G. Seton_]

THE SHRUNKEN RANGE

It is not generally known that the American Buffalo ranged as far east
as Syracuse, Washington City, and Carolina, that they populated the
forests in small numbers, as well as the plains in great herds. I
estimate them at over 50,000,000 in A.D. 1500. In 1895 they were down to
800; probably this was the low-ebb year. Since then they have increased
under judicious protection, and now reach about 3,000.

In the June of 1897, as I stood on a hill near Baronett's Bridge,
overlooking the Yellowstone just beyond Yancey's, with an old timer,
Dave Roberts, he said: "Twenty years ago, when I first saw this valley,
it was black-speckled with Buffalo, and every valley in the Park was the
same." Now the only sign of the species was a couple of old skulls
crumbling in the grass.

In 1900 the remnant in the Park had fallen to thirty, and their
extinction seemed certain. But the matter was taken up energetically by
the officers in charge. Protection, formerly a legal fiction, was made
an accomplished fact. The Buffalo have increased ever since, and to-day
number 200, with the possibility of some stragglers.

We need not dwell on the story of the extinction of the great herds.
That is familiar to all,[B] but it is well to remind the reader that it
was inevitable. The land was, or would be, needed for human settlement,
with which the Buffalo herds were incompatible; only we brought it on
forty or fifty years before it was necessary. "Could we not save the
Buffalo as range-cattle?" is the question that most ask. The answer is:
It has been tried a hundred times and