EXTINCT OXEN 



319 



is not necessary to change it. The Sclavonic name is Zul)r or Suber. 

 It is a great beast, standing 6 feet or so in heiglit at the 

 shoulder. It ranged further over Europe well within the historic 

 period. In the days of Charlemagne it was spread over Germany 

 and was a beast of the chase. In the year 1848 the Emperor 

 of Russia presented a pair of these Oxen to the Zoological Society 

 of London. At the time of their presentation an interesting 

 communication was made to the Society hj M. Dolmatoff, on the 

 method of the capture of these two examples. The creature is 

 not easy to ca])ture and is alarming to confront. " The eyes," 



Fig. 167. — Bison. Bison americanus. x 5% 



says an old writer, " are red and fiery ; the looks are furious and 

 commajiding." It has of course the shaggy mane and hump of 

 the American animal. The herd in Lithuania was said to be 

 1900 in the year 1856. Mr. E. ^^. Buxton,^ who has lately 

 visited the forest, quotes M. NeverH to the effect tliat at present 

 the numbers are not more than 700. 



Allied to this animal, and apparently still nearer to the American 

 Bison, is the extinct B. 2)riscus of Europe. The Pleistocene Bisons 

 of Xorth America, B. antiquus and B. laiifrons, are not remote from 

 the living forms. Finally, the Miocene B. sivalensis from India, 

 and the Pliocene B.ferox and B. alleni of North America, take back 

 this group to as remote a period as any other genus of Oxen. 



1 Prnc. Zool. Soc. 1899, p. 64. 



