76 NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS 



present species, distinguishing it from the urus or 

 aurochs. 



Tibi dant variae pectora Tigres 

 Tibi villosi terga Bisontes 

 Latisque feri cornibus Uri. 



Senec. Hippol. 



In mediaeval literature one finds bison and urus 

 hopelessly mixed up. The urus (Bos taurus] was a 

 fine beast inhabiting the Black Forest, and was 

 probably of a white colour varied with dun and red ; 

 its horns were situated at the summit of the skull, 

 and attained a span of 50 inches. It was thus 

 entirely different from the bonasus ; yet one finds 

 writer after writer (Gyllius, Erasmus Stella, Claus 

 Magnus, and Albert the Great) hopelessly confusing 

 the two animals, and even mistaking elk and reindeer 

 for bison ! Gesner figured two beasts, one of which 

 he thought was a bison, the other the urus ; Pallas, 

 however, showed that both represented the urus. 

 The matter was cleared up in truly drastic fashion by 

 the extinction of the wild urus ; some strain of urus 

 blood probably persists in the half-wild cattle of a 

 few English parks. The strange perversity which 

 has misnamed the American bison the " buffalo " and 

 the Indian gaur the "bison" has applied the term 

 "aurochs" to the European bison; the latter term 

 really belongs to the urus hence the only "aurochs" 

 alive to day are the white park cattle. 



In the old days the bison was abundant, and its 



