Feb., IQI2. Mammals of Illinois and Wisconsin — Cory. 87 



Family BOVID^. Bison, Oxen, Sheep, etc. 



Horns curved and cylindrical, simple (not I branched), hollow and 

 l)cm-ianent (not annually shed), usually present in both sexes; lach- 

 rymal bone almost always articulating with the nasal; no canine 

 teeth or incisors in upper jaw; canines in lower jaw resembling incisors; 

 stomach divided into four compartments as in most other Ruminants ; 

 gall bladder present;* lateral digits represented by "false hoofs" or 

 absent. A widely distributed family, including the American Bison 

 or Buffalo, Oxen, Sheep, Goats, etc., as well as the true Antelopes, 

 but not the so-called American Antelope or Pronghorn which is usualh- 

 placed in a family by itself. f Three subfamilies are represented in 

 North America: Bison (Bovincc); Musk-oxen {Oviboviiicc) ; and Moun- 

 tain Shcc]) and Goats iCapriiicr). 



Genus BISON H. S mil It. 



Biso)i H. Smith, Griffith's Cu\-ier Animal Kingdom, V, it^i-j, j). ^73. 



Type Bos bison Linn. 



Horns curved and cylindrical, hollow and permanent; body coxcrcd 

 with woolly hair; head, jjart of neck and upper fore legs covered with 

 long, shaggy hair; a "hump" on shoulders due to unusually long 

 vertebral spines at that ])f>int; horns and hoofs black. 



Denial Jormiila: I-^' C. ^^- Pm. ^^ M.^; = 32. 

 ."> 3 ^ ^ 3 ^3 3^3 



The living rcprcsentati\'es of this genus are the American Bison 

 and its northern race, the Wood Bison, together with the European 

 Bison {B. bonasns), which still exists in parts of Lithuania, Roumania, 

 and the Caucasus. 



Bison bison (Linn.). 



American Bison. Buffalo. 



[Bos] bison LiNN^us, Syst. Nat., X ed., 1758, p. 72. 



B[ison] bison Jordan, Man. Vert. Anim., 5th ed., 1888, p. 337. 



Bison bison G.\rman, Bull. Essex Inst., XXVI, 1894, p. 4 (Kentucky). Rhoads, 



Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1896 (1897), p. 177 (Tennessee). Osborn, Annals 



of Iowa, VI, 1905, p. 563 (Iowa). 



* Except in Cephalopiis. 



t Dr. M. W. Lyon considers tlie American Antelope to belong to the family 

 BovidcF. (Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus.. XXXIV. 190S, p. 398.) 



