THE AMERICAN BISONS. 1% 
5. Bison priscus. Specimen from Sandhofen, Province of Mannheim. Measurements from Meyer’s 
Ueber fossile Reste von Ochsen (Nov. Act. Acad. Nat. Cur., Vol. XIID), No. 7 of Meyer’s Memoir. 
6. Bison priscus. Specimen from Pavia, on the Po. No. 8 of Meyer’s Memoir (1. c.). 
7. Bison priscus. Believed to be from Hungary. No. 9 of Meyer’s Memoir (1. c.). 
8. Bison priscus. Banks of the Rhine near Erfelden. No. 10 of Meyer’s Memoir (1. c.). 
9-15. Bison priscus. Banks of the Rhine. Nos. 11-16 of Meyer’s Memoir (1. c.). 
16. Bison priscus. Cast of specimen from Austrian Italy, in the Museum of Parma. (No. 1199 of 
Ward's Series of Casts.) 
17. Bison latifrons Leidy. Peale’s original specimen. 
18. Bison latifrons. San Felipe, Texas. Specimen described by Dr. Carpenter. 
19. Bison latifrons. Adams County, Ohio. Measurements communicated by Dr. O. D. Norton. 
Synonymy and Nomenclature. — By European writers the remains of the ex- 
tinct bisons found in North America have been always referred to the Bison 
priscus of the Old World. Dr. Leidy, who is almost the only American 
author who has written about them, has always viewed them as not only 
distinct from the European, but has at different times regarded them as 
belonging to several different , species. 
The first specific systematic name, however, bestowed upon any species 
of extinct bison was that of (atifrons, given by Dr. Harlan (see the pre- 
ceding table of synonymy) in 1825. The specimen described by Harlan 
was the now historic one described first by Peale, and subsequently by 
Cuvier and Leidy; but Harlan adds, “ Similar fossil skulls have been found 
in Europe, on the borders of the Rhine, near to Cracovie, in Bohemia,” etc. 
Previously the remains of the fossil bisons had all been universally referred 
to the aurochs (Bison bonasus Gray), although in this same year Cuvier, in 
the third edition of his “ Ossemens Fossiles,” admitted the fossil bison as a 
third species, without, however, giving it a distinctive name.* Two years 
later Bojanus applied to the extinct bisons, including the American, the spe- 
cific name of priscus (Urus priscus).t 
* Dans ma premiere édition, j’avois considéré les cranes fossiles d’Europe comme appartenant 4 l’aurochs 
ordinaire, et ceux de Sibérie comme provenant d’une espéce perdue; maintenant que j’ai reconnu les uns 
et les autres pour étre de la méme espéce, il s’agiroit de savoir s’ils seroient tous de laurochs; mais comme 
je viens de constater aussi qu’ils ne ressemblent pas plus & Vaurochs que celui-ci ne ressemble au bison 
d Amérique, et s deux animaux sont distincts par l’espéce, on ne voit pas pourquoi celui qui a produit 
les grands cranes fossiles ne seroit pas d’une troisiéme espece, aussi distincte que les deux premieres, et dont 
les caractéres .auroient tenu 4 d’autres parties qu’é la téte. La grandeur de ses cornes pourroit déja le 
faire soupconner, car les plus vieux bisons et les plus vieux aurochs n’ont que des cornes médiocres. M. 
Haequet m’écrit que les plus erands individus n’ont pas de noyaux de cornes de plus d’un pied de long.” — 
Ossemens Fossiles, 3d Ed., Tome IV, p. 148. 
+ Bojanus’s words are as follows: “ Quam prisci aevi terrarum etiam, a quibus hoe tempore prorsus 
