1897.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 483 



NOTES ON LIVING AND EXTINCT SPECIES OF NORTH AMERICAN 



BOVIDJE. 



BY SAMUEL N. RHOADS. 



Through the courtesy of his friend Stewart Culin,of the Depart- 

 ment of Archeology and Paleontology, University of Pennsylvania, 

 the author has been permitted to examine a collection of mammal- 

 ian fossils forwarded from Alaska to the University. 



These fossils were collected "on the tundra, back of Point Barrow," 

 a locality from which no mammalian fossils appear to have been 

 previously recorded, and situated 500 miles farther north than the 

 celebrated Elephant Point fossil beds on the shores of Eschscholtz 

 Bay. 



They comprise numerous parts of the skeletons of Elephas, to- 

 gether with the skulls of three individuals of the genus Bison, all in 

 an unusually good state of preservation. In identifying these for 

 Mr. Culin it was found necessary to make comparisons with the 

 type specimens of Bison in the Museum of the Academy of Natural 

 Sciences of Philadelphia. The results of this study appear to war- 

 rant publication, affecting as they do the question of the relation- 

 ships of Bison latijrons (Harlan), B. antiquus Leidy, B. alleni 

 Marsh and B. erampianus (Cope). 



The two smaller specimens, Nos. 13,752, 13,753 of the University 

 Museum Catalogue, undoubtedly represent the smaller extinct bison 

 of N. America, named in 1854 by Richardson, Bison crassicomis, 

 from specimens taken at Eschscholtz Bay, Alaska. The smaller of 

 these two specimens, No. 13,752, is from an adult animal, probably 

 a male, of four or five years. The fronto-parietal and occipital por- 

 tions of the skull from the posterior line of the orbits to the basi- 

 occipital inclusive, are intact, as also the horn-cores. The distance 

 from tip to tip of horn-cores is 812 millimeters. The frontal breadth 

 between the bases of horn-cores is 318 mm. Specimen No. 13,753 

 is a skull in much the same condition as the preceding, excepting 

 the horn-cores, whose terminal thirds have been destroyed. It be- 

 longs to an older animal than No. 13,752, the frontal breadth be- 

 tween the bases of horn-cores being about the same as in that speci- 



