Buffalo

American buffalo Bison bison

Description

Any of several oxlike mammals of the family Bovidae. Buffalo, is also the commonly, but incorrectly, used name for the North American bison (Bison bison). Skins from the bison were used by Native Americans for clothing and tents. Rawhide was also produced from treated but untanned skins. In the latter half of the 19th century, an imitation Russia leather produced from bison was used extensively in covering books in the U.S. (Roberts and Etherington 1982).

Synonyms and Related Terms

Bison bison (bison); búfalo (Esp.); bisonte (Esp.); buffle (Fr.); bison (Fr.); Syncerus caffer (buffel)(Ned); Buballus bubalis (karbouw)(Ned); Bison bison (bizon) (Ned);

Bison

Resources and Citations

• G.S.Brady, Materials Handbook, McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York, 1971 Comment: p. 447

• Matt Roberts, Don Etherington, Bookbinding and the Conservation of Books: a Dictionary of Descriptive Terminology, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington DC, 1982

• Random House, Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, Grammercy Book, New York, 1997

• The American Heritage Dictionary or Encarta, via Microsoft Bookshelf 98, Microsoft Corp., 1998

• Edward Reich, Carlton J. Siegler, Consumer Goods: How to Know and Use Them, American Book Company, New York City, 1937