2 THE AMERICAN BISONS. 



Prof. Owen* later made this the chief distinction between the bison and 

 the ox. In the bisons the short premaxillaries do not rise to join the 

 nasals, and therefore six bones enter into the formation of the external nasal 

 opening instead of four, as is the case in Bos and Bubahs. Owen also calls 

 attention to the projecting orbital processes, which with the lachrymal and 

 malar processes form a projecting orbital cylinder. The ribs. Owen also 

 says, " never exceed in number thirteen pairs in any species of Bos proper ; 

 [while] the European bison or aurochs has fourteen, and the American bison 

 fifteen pairs of ribs." The last statement, however, is erroneous, the Ameri- 

 can bison having the same number of pairs of ribs and the same number 

 of lumbar vertebrae as the European, notwithstanding numerous statements 

 to the contrary.! 



* Descrip. Cat. Oat Series in Mil?. Boy. CoU Surgeons of England, p. 622, 1853. 



t This oft-repeated misstatement affords a striking instance of the persistency of error. In this rase 



tl rror had a singular origin, ami its repetition is to some degree justifiable. The first skeleton of the 



i ican bison known in Europe was that obtained from a living specimen received at the Paris 

 Menagerie in 1819, and which was described by Cuvier in his Ossemens Fossiles (tome IV, p. 118, of 



third edition). This specimen — one instance probably in thousands — chanced to have fifteen jmirs of 



Tibs, and consequently but four lumbar vertebra. Cuvier of course called attention to this Fact as afford- 

 ing an important distinction between the American and European bisona Says Cuvier: '• Quant an rests 

 du squelette, la femelle envoyee d'Amerique par M. Milbert a quinze paircs de cdtes, tandis que I'aurochs 

 de r a que quatorze, et les autrea bceufa treize settlement Cette femelle n'a en revanche que 



qnatn ombaires, tandis que I'aurochs en a cinq, et les autrea bceufa -i\." It i- hence not st 



that mere compilers, and even authorities of some eminence, should for a time perpetuate the error, espe- 

 cially Bince it waa many years before a second skeleton of the American bison fell under the eye of a 

 comparative anatomist Yet it seems a little strange t" find it repeated by leading English anatomists 

 and zoologists for many years after several of the leading museums of Great Britain contained skeletons 



of the American bison. Owen, as late as 1866, in his great work On the (' parativo Anatomy of the 



Vertebrates (Vol. II. p. 162), says: "The European bison ha- fourteen dorsal and five lumbar vertebras; 



tin- Ameri an bi ha- fifteen dorsal and four lumbar, and this is the extreme reached, in the Ruminant 



order, uf movable ribs, equalling in number those of the Hippopotamus." 



Hamilton Smith in Griffith's Cuvier (Vol. IV, p. tot and Vol. V, p. 874), published in 1826, of course 



gave tie- s; number as Cuvier, a- did also Fischer, in 1828, in his Synopsis Mammalium (p 



an I Wagner (Suppl. to S iget., V, 178), in 1866. Dr. J. E. Gray, in 1862, in his Catalogue of 



the Mammalia of the British Museum (Part III. Ungulata Furcipeda, p 86), saya undei 



fourteen or fifteen pair-." although there were then two skeletons in thi' British Museum. Edward 



Ilhthc. in <>rr'- translation of Onvier'a Animal Kingdom (p. US), in 1846 and in 1861, reiterated the 



e error, as did Owen in 1846, in hi- British Fossil Mammal- and Birds, a- above cited, ami in the 



I' i edinga of tl, ,i London for 1*1* (p 180), a- it was also by authors "f lessor tun.'. 



Gerrard, in 1862, In In- I thi Bones of Mammal- in the British Museum (p. 280), gave for 



the first time the correct number. Lilljcborg, in i^ri tl h Not Ryggradsdjur), 



tit on thi" point, and eiic- the number given bj Gerrard. RUtlmeyer in 1867 



,i which presented onlj fourteen pain of ribs ami live lumbar ><t- 



i,. n Gew In- l<t. d. - Rindea, II. p 



