Daniel Perri, age 11, of Staten Island,  N.Y., for his question:

IS A BUFFALO THE SAME AS A BISON?

Many people of North America call this animal a buffalo, and since he is a native of their continent surely they have a right to choose his name. He was given this name because he reminded the settlers of another wild ox, the water buffalo of Africa. However, zoologists do not

The true buffalo is a humpless ox with a pair of huge upturned horns, shaped like certain bicycle handbars. His skeleton has 13 pairs of ribs. The bison has 14 pairs of ribs, plus a huge hump on his shoulders and a very shaggy head. We may refer to our native wild ox as a bison or as the American buffalo  though actually he is not a genuine buffalo.