The Buffalo Tail by Daniel T. "Bud" Kelly, Jr., is in part a sequel to The Buffalo Head, his father's history of the Kelly family's pioneer mercantile trading company, Gross Kelly & Co., which traces its origins to 1867. The Buffalo Tail recounts Bud's liquidation of the company in1954 in an era of modern mercantilism in which a pioneering trading company could no longer be competitive. The story moves on to describe the author's subsequent adventures as the proprietor of an insurance company in Santa Fe, recounting the rewards and hazards of insuring such clients as uranium mines, ranches, apple orchards, Santa Fe artists, galleries and the Santa Fe opera.