120 



THE TWO-TOED ARTIODACTYLA. 



large member of the ox tribe, the Ur or 

 Auerochs, while the inhabitants of the coun- 

 tries to- which they belonged distinguished 

 these two rather different species very well. 

 Both species were favourite objects of the 

 chase in the middle ages. In the account 

 of Siegfrid's hunting expedition at Worms, 

 which is introduced into the Nibelungenlied, 

 an account in which mention is made of all 

 the leading kinds of game then hunted in 

 Germany, two species of wild cattle, namely, 

 the Bison and the Ur, occur among the 

 number. The Poles also had separate names 

 for the two species, distinguishing the one as 

 Subr and the other as Tur. Pliny likewise 

 mentions the same species, which in his day 

 were brought to Rome for the games of the 

 circus, and distinguishes the Bonassus with 

 its thick mane from the Urus with its terrible 

 horns. It was only about the sixteenth 

 century that the two species began to be 

 confounded in Western Europe. At that 

 time the urus was already extinct or had 

 been transformed into domesticated cattle, 

 while the bison survived only in Poland. 

 The name of the extinct animal was trans- 

 ferred to the survivor, and the bison was 

 called also the Ur, Aur, or Auerochs, a name 

 which has, unfortunately, been preserved in 

 French nomenclature, but which ought to be 

 allowed to drop out of use altogether in 

 order to prevent the confusion from becoming 

 endless. 



We see then that the bison, the Wisent 

 of the Germans, the Subr of the Poles, still 

 exists. It is found at the present day in 

 the large forests of Bialowicza, in the govern- 

 ment of Grodno in Lithuania, and in the 

 heart of the Caucasus, in the vicinity of the 

 sources of the Terek and the Kuban. It 

 is an animal of huge size. An old bull 

 may attain the height of 7^ feet at the 

 withers. The head, with its broad arched 

 forehead, short ears, and broad swollen 

 muffle, carries the small round sharp horns, 

 which are turned upwards in such a manner 



that the points stand over the roots at the 

 edge of the brow. The legs are short and 

 sturdy, the hoofs rounded, the accessory 

 hoofs small, and the short thick tail carries 

 a tuft of hair at the end. A thick coat com- 

 posed of wool and of long soft hair envelops 

 the breast, shoulders, and withers, and forms 

 a sort of mane on the head and neck. It 

 becomes considerably longer underneath the 

 dewlap, between the horns, and upon the 

 withers, which, apart from this, are so high 

 that the animal appears to carry a hump. 

 The close-set but shorter hair covers all the 

 rest of the body. The colour is a dark 

 brown on the back, lighter on the sides. 



Bisons live in herds, which were formerly 

 numerous, under the leadership of one of the 

 older bulls, and generally frequent marshy 

 woods when they can. They are savage and 

 courageous, terrible in attack, and dash with 

 fury on the hunter who ventures to pursue 

 them. Formerly, when it was considered 

 the rule to kill the animal with the naked 

 weapon, the hunting of the bison was looked 

 upon as a battle for life or death. The 

 bisons that are found at the present day in 

 our zoological gardens are descendants of 

 a few pairs which were captured young, and 

 presented by the Russian emperors, by whose 

 command the wild animals of the forest of 

 Bialowicza are strictly preserved. The bisons 

 are always savage in their disposition, and 

 the cows, in themselves much more tractable 

 than the bulls, invariably kill their calves, to 

 which they are extremely devoted, when the 

 hand of man has touched them. The flesh 

 was at one time esteemed, and as late as the 

 year 1000 the vassals of the monastery of 

 St. Gall had to hand over the bisons killed 

 by them to the kitchen of the bishop. 



The American Bison (Bison americanus], 

 PI. XXXII., which likewise occupies a full- 

 page plate, is not essentially different from 

 the European. The hair is thicker and 

 longer both on the general surface of the 

 body and on the parts occupied by the mane. 



