VII. 

 The American Bison or Buffalo. 



Bison bison (Linnaeus). 



(Gr. Bison, the shaggy, hump-backed, wild Ox of Europe; the true Bison.) 



Bos bison Linn., 1758. Syst. Nat., ed. I, p. 72. 



Bison bison Jordan, 1888. Man. Vert., U. S., 5th Ed., p. 337. 



Type Locality. — Mountains of south-eastern United States. 



French Canadian, le Bison. 



Cree & OjiB., Mush-kwe-tay'-pej-ee-kee (prairie 



horned-beast). 

 Chipewyan, Ed-jer'-ay. 



Yankton Sioux, Tah-tank-ka Coh-wah'-pee. 

 Ogallala Sioux, Tah-tank'-kah (bull), Ptay (cow). 



The Family Bovidce comprises large animals (cattle) of 

 the style of the common ox. They have hollow horns on 

 persistent bony cores, which grow larger each year, and are 

 never shed; 4 hoofs on each foot, the hinder 2 smaller and 

 higher than the front 2; feed on herbage; have no upper in- 

 cisors; a complex stomach, with 4 distinct compartments, and 

 chew the cud. 



The genus Bison (H. Smith, 1827) has, in addition to 

 all the Family characters: Curved cylindrical horns; a high 

 hump on the shoulders, due to great prolongation of the spines 



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