General Zoological Changes. 253 



ing the Bison; (see below). The animal figured there has 

 the form of a common ox, but the author is honest enough 

 to confess that it was not drawn from nature ; whereas at p. 

 31 is a very tolerable figure of the Bison, (zubr). From the 

 above it appears, that the painter from whose map of Russia* 

 Gesner obtained the figure of the Urus, (to which the latter 

 gives the synonyme of Thur), had drawn his composition af- 

 ter the same information, as applied to the tur, as that which 

 Herberstein had obtained, as applied to the zubr. 



Enough has been said by Bojanus, Jarocld, &c. to shew 

 that the subsequent authors, down to Cuvier, who have given 

 an opinion on the tur and zubr, and were more or less sway- 

 ed by Herberstein, as Gesner, Aldrovand, Jonston, Henne- 

 berger, Hartknoch, Masecovius, Cnapius, Thad. Czacki, 

 Kluck, and even Buffon, Linnaeus, Pallas, &c. have only ren- 

 dered the subject more obscure. f 



The result at which we have at length arrived, with a de- 

 gree of probability which is perhaps allowed to be better es- 

 tablished than that obtained by Bojanus, is, that the Urns 

 and Bison are the same animal ; and that we have for the 

 creature now called in the system, Bos Urns, four sets of sy- 

 nonymes, viz. one probably of barbarous origin, but employ- 

 ed by Aristotle, Bonasus, Monassus : one, it seems also of 

 barbarous origin, Bison, Visen, Wisont, Wisant, &c. ; one 



* Gesner. 1. c. "Aus einer Mappa des Moscowiterlands genommen." 

 fl must leave it to such as live nearer the ancient habitat of the Scottish 

 Bison, described by Hector Boethius as being quite white, as having a mane 

 like a lion, but in other respects much resembling the tame oxen, to settle 

 the doubts which still exist respecting the real nature of this interesting a- 

 nimal. Boethius further says that these bisons are so wild, that when a man 

 has touched with his hand, or even breathed upon grass, trees, Sec. they will 

 avoid such places for many days ; and that they will die with sadness if 

 caught. (Descrip. Regn. Scot. fol. xi.). If nothing but this description 

 were extant, and the same authentic, we should perhaps not hesitate to re- 

 fer the animal to the Bos urus, (zubr). But from the time of Boethius, 

 (16th century), to that of Buffon, these bisons, though kept in nearly the 

 same manner in the parks of the Dukes of Hamilton and Queensberry, as 

 the zubr is in the forest of Bialowicza, had lost their mane, if we may give 

 credit to a letter of Forster to Buffon, (see Cuvier's edition of Buffon, t. 

 xviii. pp. 88 and 89). This appears very strange in a rather cold climate. 

 He also states that they were then not larger than a middling-sized ox ; the 

 males weighing 530, and the females 400 pounds. Their colour was white, 

 except at the muzzle and ears, which were black. The description of their 

 form, as given by Forster, is extremely imperfect, as he merely says that 

 they had finer horns and higher legs than the domestic oxen, which brings 

 them again nearer the zubr, as does also the strength of their skin, the rush 

 they made at the hunter, and their antipathy to the tame cattle. Cuvier 

 took this animal for a variety of the zubr, but in the absence of osteological 

 testimony, I apprehend this point will never be decided. 



