THE AMERICAN BISOXS. 3 



As compared with the species of Bos proper, the bisons also differ in their 

 more slender limbs, smaller ribs, and less massive bones, as well as in 

 their much longer dorsal spines, and relatively longer canon-bones of the 

 hind limbs as compared with those of the fore limbs. Externally they differ 

 in having the head heavily clothed with long bushy hair ; they also possess 

 a heavy barb, and the fore legs are heavily fringed with coarse long hair. 

 The clothing hair of the body also differs from that of the representatives 

 of the restricted genus Bos and most of its allies in consisting mainly of 

 short, curled, crisp wool in place of straight hairs. On the whole the bisons 

 proper, or the restricted genus Bison, form a strongly marked natural group, 

 the different members of which exhibit a close interrelation. Their nearest 

 ally is probably the yac (Poephagus grunniens), which was considered by 

 Turner as congeneric with the bisons, though by others as more allied to 

 the musk ox. The other nearest allies of the bisons are the gaurs (Bibos 

 gaums and Bibos frontalis), but none of these forms very closely approach 

 the bisons. 



The name Bison was first applied to this group in a generic sense by Ham- 

 ilton Smith in 1827. In the same year Bojanus used the name Urns for the 

 designation of the aurochs and the larger extinct bisons. Prof. Owen in 

 1813 also used the name Urus in a generic sense for the designation of this 

 group. The name Harlanus, given to a supposed new tapiroid pachyderm, 

 was based on what proved on later investigation to be an imperfect ramus 

 of an extinct bison, the teeth of which had become so much worn as to ob- 

 scure their true character. Butimeyer has recently used the name Bisontina 

 in a super-generic sense for the same group. 



2. — General historical Account of the Bemains of Extinct 

 Bisons hitherto found in North America. 



As introductory to the following pages, a brief historical notice of the 

 hitherto known remains of extinct North American bisons may not be 

 wholly out of place. 



The first remains of an extinct bison discovered in North America * were 



* The (undiscovered remains of a fossil bison seem to have been the skull obtained near Dantzic, ami 

 described by Klein in 1732 (in Philosoph. Transact., XXXVII, Xo. 426, fi ? s. 1 - 3). In 1803 Faujas, and 

 later Brocchi and Cuvier described others from Northern Italy and the valley of the Rhine, and numerous 



