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THE AMERICAIT BISOXS 



61 



Ml;] 



To the Spanisli colonists the American bison was commonly known nnder 

 the name of Cibola, but some Spanish writers speak of it nnder the name 

 Biso^iie, while De Laet and others called it Armenta, Boeuf sauvage was the 



name 



# 



'age. 



and sometimes Bison d' Ameriqiie^ by the early Trench colonists^ while the 



r 



QKn.d.^\wivoyageiirs are said to term it simply fe hmuf, Kalm spoke of the 



WUde 



Sf-fl 



also often referred to this animal under the same English equivalent^ and 



\fMe and Boeuf 



These two last-mentioned 



names were also applied, by both the early French and the early English 



explorers, to the Moose {Alces 



and the elk ( Cerviis canadensis). 



Charlevoix called the bison the Boeuf du Canada, Marquette called it the 

 PisiJcious, adopting the name then current among the Illinois Indians, while 



r 



Hennepin called it Taureau sauvage. Lawson and Bricknell used the name 

 Buff eh ^ which name, modified to Buffalo, was employed by Catesby and was 

 early adopted by the English colonists. According to Richardson it is 

 PeecheeJc by the Algonquins, Adgiddah by the ChepewyanSj and Iloostoosh by 

 the Crees. 



In the United States this animal has generally borne the name olluffalo^ 

 though discriminating writers persist that the name is erroneous, and that 



4 



it should be called the American bison. The latter is undoubtedly its correct 

 English cognomen, but probably among the people generally the name bif- 

 falo will never be supplanted. The term American' biffalo is doubtless 

 defensible for those who prefer it, and even btff'alo is no more a misnomer 

 than scores of the names of our common mammals and birds. The name 

 Robin, as applied to Tnrdus migratoriiis, is even more objectionable than that 

 of buffalo as applied to the American bison. The name buffalo is of course 

 strictly applicable only to the genus Babalus, embracing the true African and 

 Indian buffaloes. 



of- 



The first figure of the bison ever published 



^ 



is doubtless that given by Thevet in 1558,* three years after the publication 

 of Vaca's "Journal," in which occurs the earliest description of the American 

 bison. This is an extremely rude figure, having but little resemblance to 

 the bison. In 1633 De Laetf published another equally faulty. Nierem- 

 burg,$ in 1635, and Hernandez, § in 1651, published others, which so much 

 resemble Thevet's that they seem to be merely enlarged, slightly modified 



v^ 



J 



* Les Sino-ularitez de la France Antarctique, p. 145. 



f Amer.j p. 303. 



% Hist ISTat., p. 18L 



Mex., p. 587. 



