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THE AMERICAN BISONS. bl 
To the Spanish colonists the American bison was commonly known under 
the name of Cibola, but some Spanish writers speak of it under the name 
Bisonte, while De Laét and others called it Armenta. Beeuf sauvage was the 
name given it by Du Pratz, though often also called Bufle, Vache sauvage, 
and sometimes Bison d’ Amérique, by the early French colonists, while the 
Canadian voyageurs are said to term it simply / bauf. Kalm spoke of the 
American bisons as Wilde Ochsen und Kiuhe, while the early English explorers 
also often referred to this animal under the same English equivalent, and 
also used for it the names Bufle and Beuf sauvage. These two last-mentioned 
names were also applied, by both the early French and the early English 
explorers, to the Moose (Alces malchis) and the elk (Cervus canadensis). 
Charlevoix called the bison the Bauf du Canada. Marquette called it the 
Pisikious, adopting the name then current among the Illinois Indians, while 
Hennepin called it Zawreau sauvage. Lawson and Bricknell used the name 
Buffelo, which name, modified to Buffalo, was employed by Catesby and was 
early adopted by the English colonists. According to Richardson it is called 
Peecheek by the Algonquins, Adgiddah by the Chepewyans, and Moostoosh by 
the Crees. 
In the United States this animal has generally borne the name of buffah, 
though discriminating writers persist that the name is erroneous, and that 
it should be called the American bison. The latter is undoubtedly its correct 
English cognomen, but probably among the people generally the name du/- 
falo will never be supplanted. The term American buffalo is doubtless 
defensible for those who prefer it, and even dyffalo is no more a misnomer 
than scores of the names of our common mammals and birds. The name 
Robin, as applied to Turdus migratorius, is even more objectionable than that 
of buffalo as applied to the American bison. The name buffalo is of course 
strictly applicable only to the genus Budalus, embracing the true African and 
Indian buffaloes. 
Figures of the American Bison. — The first figure of the bison ever published 
is doubtless that given by Thevet in 1558,* three years after the publication 
of Vaca’s “ Journal,” in which occurs the earliest description of the American 
bison. This is an extremely rude figure, having but little resemblance to 
the bison. In 1633 De Laétt published another equally faulty. Nierem- 
burg,t in 1635, and Hernandez, § in 1651, published others, which so much 
resemble Thevet’s that they seem to be merely enlarged, slightly modified 
* Les Singularitez de la France Antarctique, p. 145. 
+ Amer., p. 303. t Hist. Nat., p. 181. § Mex., p. 587. 
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