24 



THE AMEEICAjST BISO^^S. 



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sajs Eichardson, " the aurochs^ or Bison priscus of more recent palceon- 

 tologists." * To this form Dr. Eichardson referred also a large horn-core^ 

 an atlaSj several other cervical, dorsal, and lumbar vertebra?, a sacrum, 

 parts of several innominate bones, two humeri, several radii, several im- 

 perfect femora, and several metatarsals,^ chiefly on account of their large 

 size. These remains, together with other bison remains of smaller size, were 

 all from the ice-cliffs of Eschscholtz Bay, the smaller remains of this collec- 

 tion being provisionally referred by Dr. Eichardson to '^ Bison priscus ? ^^ The 

 remains referred to Bison erassicornis are descidbed in great detail by Dr. 

 Eichardson (the more important of which are also figured), and seem to 

 differ in no important particular (except in being somewhat larger) from 

 the corresponding parts of Bison americaniis. Many of the slight differences 

 he points out as existing between his Bison erassicornis and B. priscus? relate 

 only to what would normally be included within the range of individual 

 and sexual variation of representatives of the same species. All of the 



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remains of his ''Bison priscus?'' are smaller, with perhaps the exception of 

 e fragment of a skull (No. 24,589 of Eichardson's work, figured in his 

 plate vii), than the corresponding parts of the male of Bison americanus^ 

 some, perhaps of not fully grown individuals, being not larger even than 

 the corresponding parts of the female of that species. The differences exist- 



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ing between the remains referred by Eichardson to '' B. priscus?''' and '' B^ 



erassicornis " are not greater than those that obtain between the two sexes of 



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Bison americanus ; hence it seems possible that all of the bison remains 

 described from Eschscholtz Bay may belong to one and the same species, 

 the larger representing the male and the smaller the female, of the form 

 Eichardson named Bison erassicornis, which is very probably the same as the 



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J5. antiquMS of Leidy, and to which the Csilifornia bison remains may be at 

 least provisionally referred. 



To the same form I at first referred with much hesitation the bison 

 remains recently discovered by Mr. Dall and others in Alaska. As these 

 pages are passing through the press an imperfect skull f from the vicinity 

 of St. Michaefs, Alaska, has also come to hand which seems to confirm the 



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* Zool. of Voy. of Herald, as cited above. 



•f Eeceived for exaixiination from the California Academy of Sciences and labelled " Bison americanus, 

 St. Micbaers, Alaska, presented by the Alaska Commercial Company." It is wholly unraineralized, and 

 presents merely a weathered appearance, looking as a specimen might after only a few years' exposure to 

 the elements. 



