i54 the Buffalo, &c. 



the firft who announced the bifon. From the 

 time of Pliny, the name bubalus has been indif- 

 criminately applied to the urus or the bifon. 

 Confufion always augments as time advances. 

 To the bonafus, bubalus, urus, and bifon, have 

 been added the catopleba, the thur, the bubalus 

 of Belon, the Scottifh and American bifons; and 

 all our naturalifts have made as many different 

 fpecies as they have found names. Here truth is 

 fo environed with darknefs and error, that it will 

 be difficult to elucidate this part of natural hifto- 

 ry, which the contrariety of evidence, the varie- 

 ty of defcriptions, the multiplicity of denomina- 

 tions, the diverfity of places, the differences of 

 languages, and the obfcurity of time, feemed to 

 have condemned to perpetual darknefs. 



I fhall firft give my opinion on this fubjecl, 

 and afterwards produce the proofs of it. 



1. The animal we call buffalo was unknown 

 to the ancients. 



2. The buffalo, now domeftic in Europe-, is 

 the fame as the domeftic or wild buffalo of In- 

 dia and Africa. 



3. The bubalus of the Greeks and Romans 

 is neither the buffalo nor the fmall ox of Belon, 

 but the animal defcribed in the Memoires of the 

 Barbary coiv, and which we call bubalus, 



4. The fmall ox of Belon, which we have 

 feen, and diftinguifhed by the name zebu, is on- 

 ly a variety of the common ox, 



5. The 



