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THE AMEPJCAlir BISONS. 



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In 1830 Fischer also gave the name latifrom to a species of fossil bison 

 described from remains found in Siberia, which he appears to have regarded 

 as new, without, however, apparently being aware that the same name had 

 been already given to fossil bison remains from America, or that the name 

 pnsciis had been proposed for the extinct bison of Europe, he referring to 

 only Cuvier's works in his discussion of the subject. 



In 1832 H. v. Meyer, recognizing the fossil bison as a species distinct from 

 the aurochs, gave references to the literature of the subject, and a list of the 

 countries in which its remains had been found. He alludes to it under the 

 name "Bos {Bison) priscus Bojanus," referring it for the first time to Hamilton- 

 Smith's " subgenus " Bison, Meyer appears also to have been the first author 

 who associated the n^me priscus with either Bos or Bison. Neither of these 

 generic terms were used by Bojanus in connection with the specific name 



priscus^ although Bojanus is almost invariably cited as the author of this 

 association.^ 



Owen, in 1843, used the name Urus^ in a generic sense, for the bison, 

 without reference, however, to Bojanus, Owen employing it in this sense 

 entirely independently of any previous author. 



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In 1842 Dr. Harlan referred a fragment of jaw, having very much 



worn teeth, found in digging the Brunswick Canal, Georgia, to the genus 



Sits, believing it to represent a new species of that genus, which he called 



^ Sits americaniis , The same specimen was afterwards referred to Lophiodon by 



Professor Owen, who still later regarded it as forming a new genus, which he 



abest, indigenam, Rhinocerotis statiirae bclluam. Uri prisci nomine, aliis auctoribus iam recepto, desig- 

 namus."— iVoy. Act Acad, Nat. Curios., Vol. XIII, Part ii, p. 427. The date usually quoted for Bojanus's 

 name o£ priscus is 1825, wliich is tlie date of writing ; the volume is dated 1827. 



* The phraseology used by Bojanus, as already shown, was ''Urus priscus," but only once have I been 

 able to find the name Urus priscus Bojanus given among the synonymes of any species of Biso)i. Meyer, 

 in 1832, wrote ''Bos {Bison) priscus Bojanus," and in 1835, simply ''Bos priscus Bojanus," evidently citing 

 Bojanus as the authority for only the specific name. In 1846 Owen, in his synonymy (Brit Fossil Mam. 

 and Birds, p. 491) of Bison priscus, wrote ''Bos (Bison) priscus Bojanus, Nov. Act. Acad. Nat. Cur., t. 

 XIII." I In 1854 Richardson said, " Bojanus, in 1825, bestowed the name of Bos (Bison) priscus on the 

 fossil species" (ZooL Voy. Herald, p. 31), while Dr. J. E. Gray, in 1852, in his synonymy of the genus 

 Bison, cites "Bison Bojanus, N. Act Acad. Nat Cur., XIII " ; but Bojanus, as above stated, did not use 



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the word Bison at all in a generic sense in the article in question. Lilljeborg is the only author who has, so 

 far as I have seen, given the references to Bojanus properly. In his Fauna ofver Sveriges och Norges 

 Ryggradsdjur (Upsala, 1874), p. 877, under Bos honasus Linne, he cites Bojanus as follows : " Urus 

 nostras L. II. Bojanus. De uro nostratc ejusquc sccleto, Commentatio ; Nova Acta Physico-Medica 

 Acad. Caesar. Lcop. Carol. Nat Curios., T. XIII, pars ILda, pag. 413,-1827." He also gives " Urus 

 priscusj Idem : ibm, pag. 427," 



