THE AMEEICAI^ BISOXS 



5 



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him to differ only in its somewhat larger size and longer^ less curved horns. 

 Cuvier repeated his figure and description of the American specimen in the 

 first and subsequent editions of his " Ossemens Fossiles/' and retained the 

 same opinion respecting the affinities of the living and extinct bisons until 

 the edition of 1825, when he admitted, in view^ of the slight differences 

 which distinguish the aurochs from the American bison {Bison amencanus), 

 the fossil bison as a third species.^ 



In 1825 the same specimen was also described by Dr. Eichard Harlan,t 

 who^ believing it to be a species distinct from the aurochs, gave it the name 

 of Bos Mifrons, which^ as will be shown later, forms the first systematic name 

 any of the extinct species received. In 1827 Bojanus^t in his memoir on 

 fossil oxen, in the description of his Unts priscus (seu Tints nostras)^ cites the 

 specimen ^^ ex America septentrionalis " described by Cuvier; it is also 

 referred to by H. v. Meyer in 1832, as well as by other authors, being 

 always regarded as specifically identical with the European fossil bison [Bos 

 priscus^ seu Bison priscus auct.). 



In 1831 Buckland, in his hst of the vertebrate fossils brought by Captain 

 Beechey from the ice-cliffs of Eschscholtz Bay, enumerates the remains of 



"fossil oxen," some of which he refers to a '-^Bos iiriis'^ (probably meaninor the 



Bison priscus of other authors), and which constitute the first remains of an 



- ^ 



extinct bison found in America after the original specimen described by 

 Peale. They received no further notice, however, for many years. 



In 1846 the greater portion of the skull of a large extinct bison w^as dis- 

 covered on the Brazos River, near San Felipe, Texas, together with a molar 



tooth. 



W 



and formed the 



second specimens discovered in the United States. The skull seems to have 

 , lacked only a part of the facial bones, and the horn-cores w^ere nearly entire. 

 The specimen was of the same gigantic proportions as the one made known 

 by Mr. Peale. 



In 1852 Dr. Leidy || described five molar teeth of a fossil bison, discovered 

 near Natchez, Mississippi, "in association with remains of 3Iastodon^ Eqms, 



* Oss. Fos., 3d Ed., Vol. IV, p. 148. 

 t Fauna Amer., p. 273. 

 % Nov. Acta, Acad. Nat. Cur., XTII, 2. 

 § Amer. Journ. Sci., 2d Ser., T, 245. 



II Proe. Acad. Nat. Sci. Plula., 1852, p. 117. — Memoir on the Extinct Species of American Ox, p. 9, 

 pi. ii, figs. 2-7. 



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