OXEN. j8 9 



short nasal bones by a much longer interval than in the yak and the gaur ; and are 

 thus very widely different from those of the typical oxen, which are prolonged up- 

 wards to join the elongated nasals. 



Bison are further characterised by the great excess in the height of the 

 withers over the hind-quarters, owing to the great length of the spines of the 

 vertebras in the fore-part of the trunk, as displayed in the figure of the skeleton on 

 p. 158. This produces a distinct hump on the shoulders, which passes, however,, 

 gradually into the line of the back without the sudden descent characterising the 

 gaur. The great development of the fore-quarters appears to be intensified by the 

 mass of dark brown hair with which the back of the head, neck, shoulders, and 

 chest are covered, and which extends far down on the fore-limbs. The long hair is 

 likewise continued as a kind of crest along the middle of the back nearly to the 

 root of the tail ; the tail itself being tufted at the end, and reaching some distance 

 below the hocks. The remainder of the body is covered with short curly hair of a 

 somewhat lighter tint than that clothing the fore-quarters. In summer the long- 

 hair over all the body is shed in large patches, thus showing the nearly bare skin 

 clothed with short mouse-coloured hair, as exhibited in our coloured illustration. 

 Both the European and the American bison are very closely allied, and we shall 

 reserve our notice of their distinctive differences till we come to the second of the 

 two species. Owing to a confusion of terms, the name aurochs, which properly 

 belongs to the extinct wild ox of Europe, has been very generally applied to the 

 European or true bison, but it may be hoped that this misapplication will soon be 

 a thing of the past. 



„ ^ ... , The European bison is a forest-dwelling; animal, having; been 



Distribution. L to & 



always absent from the open plains of Southern Russia, which in 



many respects resemble the habitat of its North American cousin. Formerly this 

 species, as attested both by historical documents and by its semi-fossilised remains, 

 was abundant over a large area of Europe, but it is now restricted to the forests of 

 Bialowitza in Lithuania, to the Caucasus, and, it is said, to portions of Moldavia and 

 Wallachia. Fossil remains of the bison are met with in the caverns and superficial 

 deposits of England, France, Switzerland, Germany, and Italy ; the earliest deposits 

 in which they occur being the brick - earths of the Thames valley, where they 

 are associated with those of the mammoth, and in the still older " forest-bed " 

 of the Norfolk coast. The fossil race was, indeed, of larger dimensions, and 

 had longer and rather straighter horns than its existing representative ; but 

 these differences cannot well be regarded as of specific importance. From 

 Britain the bison disappeared at a much earlier date than the aurochs, none of 

 its remains occurring in the fens and turbaries, where those of the latter are so- 

 common. Northwards the range of the bison formerly extended into Siberia ; 

 while its remains have also been obtained from the frozen soil of Eschcholtz 

 Bay in Alaska. 



The bison now living in Lithuania are specially protected by the 



Russian Government and are under the charge of a staff of keepers, but 



those of the Caucasus are thoroughly wild. Although living at a greater altitude, 



and thus exposed to a more intense cold, the bison of the Caucasus are less thickly 



haired than are those of Lithuania. Bison were abundant in the Black Forest in the 



