MEMOIR ON THE III. 



CHAPTER II. 



« 



DESCRIPTIONS OF EXTINCT SPECIES OF AMERICAN OXEN. 



BISOIV, Ham. Smith. 



In the skeleton of the genus Bison, the skull presents the most important cha- 

 racters, by which it may be distinguished from Bos and extinct species may be 

 recognized. As in Bos, the horn-cores are on a level with the orbits behind, but 

 they come off an inch or more in advance of the inion. In Bison, the forehead 

 is broad, quadrate, and slightly convex. It has no trace of lachrymal fosste. 



BISON LATIFRONS, Leidy. 



Great Indian Buffalo, Peale : Philos. Mag. Vol. XV. p. 32.5, PI. VI. ; Hist. Disq. on the Mammoth, p. 84. 



, FAnjAS-SAiNT-FoND : Essai de Geol. I. 347 ; An. du Mus. II. p. 192. 



Auro<^is, Cdvier: An. du Mus. Vol. XII. p. 382, PI. 34, Fig. 2 ; Ossem. Fos. IV. p. 50, PI. III. Fig. 2; 



Ed. 4, t. 6, p. 287, PI. CLXXIII. Fig. 2. 

 Bos lafij'rons, Harlan : Fauna Americana, p. 273 ; Med, and Phys. Pesearches, p. 270 ; Edinb. New 



Philos. Joui-n. XVII. 359 ; Cooper: Amer. Month. Journ. of Geol. Vol. I. p. 174; De Kay: An. Lye. 



Nat. Hist, of New York, Vol. II. p. 280; New York Fauna, Zool. Pt. 1, p. 110. 

 Unts 2iriscus, Bojanus: Nov. Act. Acad. Nat. Cur. XIII. 427. 

 Great fossil ox, Godman : Amer. Nat. Hist. Vol. III. p. 243, PI. 



Bos prisciis, II. v. Meter: Nov. xict. Acad. Nat. Cur. XVII. p. 141 ; Giebel: Fauna d. Vorwelt, I. p. 153. 

 Fossil ox. Carpenter: Am. Journ. of Science, n.s. Vol. I. p. 245. 

 Bison laiifrons, Leidy: Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Vol. VI. p. 117. 



The Bison laiifrons is established upon the fragment of cranium before referred 

 to, presented by Dr. Samuel Brown to the American Philosophical Society. 



The specimen consists of the hinder portion of the cranium with a fragment 

 fourteen inches in length of the left horn-core (Plate I.), and indicates a species as 

 large as the existing Arnee, or Buffalo {Buhalus huffelus, Gray), of India and Java. 



The sutures of the remaining bones of the specimen are anchylosed ; but the 

 positions of the frontal and fronto-parietal sutures are yet distinguishable as slightly 

 elevated zigzag lines (Fig. 1). 



The form of the cranial fragment with its attached portion of horn-core is almost 

 a repetition of the corresponding part of the skull of the Buffalo. 



The base of the horn-core is situated five inches in a curved line outwards and 

 forwards, or two inches and a linlf in a straight lino, in advance of the position of 

 the occipito-parietal crest. 



The forehead is slightly more flat antero-posteriorly than in the Buffalo, arising 

 from the occipito-parietal crest, being a little less below its level. 



The lateral margins of the inion are broken away in the specimen; but the 



