534 HISTORY OF 



such a mannei tliat they are used as weapons of annoyance or 

 defence ; some are extremely large, and others among them, 

 such as the zebu, or Barbary cow, are very small. They are 

 all, however, equally docile and gentle when tamed ; and, in 



Zubr, and the ancient Germans called Wizend and Bisam (Musk.) The 

 baron explains the causes which have misled naturalists, and caused them to 

 overlook the bison in the boriasus, bolinthus, monepus, monapus, and the 

 Poeonian oxen of Aristotle and Pliny, who clearly distinguishes the maned 

 bison from the rapid iirus, and Seneca still more distinctly says, 



Tibi dant variEE pectora tigris 

 Tibi villosi teiga biqontes 

 Latisque feri cornibus uri. 



Pausanias and Oppian both represent the bison as very hairy about the neck 

 and breast, place it in Poeonia and Thrace, and repeat almost the very words 

 which Aristotle uses for the bonasus. 



But the bisons of Europe are not the only species of the group : for, beside 

 the American, Asia, in all probability, contains two more. All appear to 

 live in small families, which assemble into herds only in certain seasons : 

 those of the old world prefer woods and mountains. In America, from 

 causes probably local, they are mostly found on open elevated plains or 

 savannas. Notwithstanding the hostility between the bison and the ox, it 

 is asserted that in America, the males often drive the bull from the cows, 

 and cover them, and that the intermediate animal is prolific. But this is not 

 fully authenticated. 



The animal commonly known by the names of Aurochs and Zubr is, as 

 before explained, the true bison of the ancients. It is distinguished by an 

 elevated stature, measuring six feet at the shoulder, and ten feet three inches 

 from the nose to the tail. In adult specimens the withers are elevated, but 

 when old they do not appear so, nor are they conspicuous in the females. 

 The head is broad, and the horns far distant, short, robust, pointed, slightly 

 turned forwards, aud dark-coloured ; the forehead is arched ; the eye large, 

 full, and dark ; the body is formed with fourteen pair of ribs ; the mamma 

 are four, disposed in a square ; the anterior half of the animal, with the ex- 

 ception of the chaftron, is covered with a heavy coat of mixed woolly and 

 long harder hair measuring more than a foot in winter; the internal parts of 

 the woolly, is gray or whitish, as also in general that on the top of the head, 

 throat, and breast ; the external browner on the throat and breast, abundant 

 and bearded ; the lower extremities, back, flanks, and croup, short haired, 

 of a brownish-black colour. The females are smaller, with shorter and less 

 hair on the shoulders and throat, and the colour paler. 



Mr Gilibert, who resided a long time in Poland, and reared a female, ia 

 the author who dissected and best described this species. As we have oh. 

 served, it was known to the ancients, and their bones are often found in tlia 

 superficial strata of temperate Europe. At present they are nearly de, 

 stroyed in Lithuania, though they were still common in Germany in the 

 eighth century. They may now be looked upon as residing only in the 

 forests of Southern Russia in Asia, the Carpathian and Caucasian mountain. 

 forests, and the Kobi Desert ; but none exist in Siberia. They prefer high 



