2» J S. IX. Jan. 7. 'CO.] 



NOTES AXD QUERIES. 



3 



animal, and the latter speaks of its beauty. Strabo 

 (xvii. 3. s. 4.) makes it a native of Mauritania, and 

 couples it with the dorcas. According to Oppian, 

 the bubalus is a stag, less than the euryceros, but 

 greater than the dorcus. Cyneg. ii. 300-314. (The 

 platyceros of Pliny, xi. 45., is a stag.) Ammianus 

 Marcellinus (xxii. 15. s. 14.) says that capreoli and 

 bubali are found in the arid plains of Egypt. 

 Philostratus (Vit. Apollon. vi. 24.) describes &6ay- 

 pot and Povrpayot. in ^Ethiopia. " The latter (he 

 remarks) partake of the natures of the ox and the 

 stag." It is recorded by Dio that C. Fufetius Fango, 

 a commander sent by Csesar to Africa, having re- 

 tired into the mountains after a defeat, was 

 alarmed at night by a herd of bubali which ran 

 across his encampment, and which he mistook for 

 the enemy's horse, and that he killed himself in 

 consequence (xlviii. 23. ; compare Appian, B. C. 

 v. 26.). 



Gesner and Buffon conceive the bonasus of Aris- 

 totle to be the European bison or aurochs. Cu- 

 vier (notes to the French translation of Pliny, 

 torn. vi. 416.), identifies the bonasus of Aristotle 

 with the aurochs, and accounts for the curvature 

 of the horns in the bonasus by supposing that it 

 was an accidental peculiarity of the individual 

 described by Aristotle. The author of the art. 

 Bison in the Penny Cyclopaedia likewise identifies 

 the bonasus of Aristotle with the aurochs. But 

 Camus {Notes sur THist. d 'An. d'Arist., p. 138.) 

 thinks that the European bison and the ancient 

 bonasus were distinct species of wild oxen, which 

 is likewise the conclusion of Beckmann in his ex- 

 cellent note, Aristot. Mir. p. 11. 



An account of the fossil oxen, and of their re- 

 mains, is given by Pictet in his Traite de Paleon- 

 tologie (ed. 2.), torn. i. p. 363-6. Pictet (p. 364.) 

 considers the urus as an extinct species. The 

 fossil oxen of the British isles are described in 

 Professor Owen's Hist, of Brit. Foss. Mamm., p. 

 491-515. 



A peculiar race of wild oxen, having an affinity 

 to the extinct species, is still extant in the forest 

 of Bialavieja, which is situated in the government 

 of Grodno in Lithuania, at no great distance 

 from the confines of Prussia and Russia, and which 

 covers an area of twenty-nine square German 

 miles of fifteen to a degree. These oxen, known 

 in Germany by the appellation of aurochs, bear 

 the native Polish name of Ziibr. Their number 

 in 1S28 was estimated to be between 700 and 900. 

 The aurochs or European bison i3 described as 

 being of great weight and of enormous strength, 

 but as a slow mover : it is stated that he can ' 

 master three wolves. He has large horns, and a 

 long shaggy mane. The existing species has al- 

 ways been confined to Lithuania, and probably 

 to the forest of Bialavieja ; where it has been 

 preserved, in consequence of this district having 

 i kept untouched, as a hunting ground for the 



kings of Poland. A full and authentic account of 

 the aurochs, and of the forest which it inhabits, is 

 given in the elaborate work of Sir Roderick Murchi- 

 son, LI. de Verneuil, aud Count Alexander von 

 Keyserling, On the Geology of Russia in Europe 

 (1845, 4to.), vol. i. pp. 503. 638. Two young 

 animals of this species, a male and a female, were, 

 in consequence of the application of Sir Roderick 

 Murchison, presented by the Emperor Nicholas 

 to the Zoological Society of London: but unfor- 

 tunately they died in a short time. Professor 

 Owen has informed me that he dissected the 

 young male, but found its anatomy so closely 

 agreeing with the description by Bojanus in the 

 Nova Acta Acad. Natur. Curios., 4to. torn, xiii., 

 as not to require recording in the Proceedings of 

 the Zoological Society. Many preparations of the 

 bones and viscera were made for the Museum of 

 the College of Surgeons, one of which shows the 

 difference in the number of ribs between the 

 European and American bisons, the former (or 

 aurochs) having fourteen and the latter fifteen 

 pairs. For a copious history of the wild oxen of 

 Europe, see Griffith's Cuoier, vol. iv. pp. 411-8., 

 4 to. 



The Preonian bonasus, or bison, appears to have 

 been a species of wild ox, cognate, but not iden- 

 tical, with the aurochs. The ancient bonasus, 

 like the modern aurochs, was confined to a single 

 and limited tract of Europe ; but since, unlike its 

 modern congener, it was not preserved in a royal 

 forest, it became extinct. The aurochs would 

 long ago have met the same fate, if its race had 

 not been perpetuated by the accidental protec- 

 tion which it has received from the kings of 

 Poland and the emperors of Russia. The un- 

 wieldy size of the aurochs, and its slowness of 

 movement, would, notwithstanding its enormous 

 strength, have soon made it the prey of men, if it 

 had not been intentionally preserved from destruc- 

 tion ; and its savage nature would have prevented 

 it from being perpetuated in a state of domestica- 

 tion. It may be remarked that the horns of the 

 bonasus, as described by Aristotle, resemble in 

 shape the horns of the Indian buffalo. 



The ancient bubalus appears originally to have 

 been a species of antelope, fourid in Northern 

 Africa (Antilope bubalus of Pallas). It is called 

 Bekr-el-wash, or wild ox, by the Arabs : in size 

 it is equal to the largest stags {Penny Cycl., art. 

 Antelope, No 61., vol. ii. p. 90.). A full ac- 

 count of the bubalc is given by Buffon, Quad., 

 (torn. v. p. 309. ; torn. x. p. 180.) : he identifies 

 it with the same species of North African ante- 

 lope or gazelle, to which he gives the appellation 

 of vache de Barbaric The same view is taken by 

 Camus, Notes sur THist (TAn. d'Aristote, p. 146. 

 Bochart (Hierozoicon, ii. 28.; iii. 22.) likewise 

 considers the bubalus as a species of stag. The 

 herd of animals which ran across the encamp- 



