European Bison (^'j 



Compared with the American bison, the skull is characterised by the 

 marked flatness of the forehead and the very tubular orbits ; the horns 

 extending at first outwards in the plane of the forehead, and then curving 

 forwards, with no backward flexure, and very little incurving towards the 

 tips. The nasal bones are likewise shorter and wider. In all the above 

 respects the European bison is much nearer to the Plistocene bison than 

 is the American species. 



The male and female Caucasian skulls in the British Museum show 

 that in the bull the horns at their origin are directed more outwardly 

 and then bend inwardly more suddenly than is the case in the cow, in 

 which they are much more slender and form a more regular curve. 

 The male skull, moreover, is of a shorter and wider type, especially 

 across the forehead, than that of the cow. In the case of fossil skulls 

 very similar differences appear to have been reckoned as of specific 

 importance. 



The following dimensions of horns are recorded by Mr. Rowland 

 Ward :— 



Sex. Locality. 



Male Lithuania 



,, . Caucasus 



,, Lithuania 

 Female .'' 



,, Caucasus 



In a Caucasian bull killed by Mr. St. George Littledale the length 

 from the nose to the root of the tail measured lo feet i inch, the height at 

 the shoulder 5 feet 11 inches, and the girth of the body approximately 

 8 feet 4 inches. 



Distrihiitioii. — As already stated, the Plistocene bison ranged over the 

 greater part oi Europe and Northern Asia, and it is now impossible to say 

 at what date its descendants became dwarted into the modern form. It is, 



