THE AMERICAN BISONS. 17 



5. Bison priscus. Specimen from Sandhofen, Province of Mannheim. Measurements from Meyer's 



Ueber fossile Resle von Ochsen (Nov. Act. Acad. Nat. Cur., Vol. XIII), No. 7 of Meyer's Memoir. 



6. BL<on priscus. Specimen from Pavia, on the Po. No. 8 of Meyer's Memoir (1. c.). 



7. B'ison priscus. Believed to be from Hungary. No. 9 of Meyer's Memoir (1. c). 



8. Bison priscus. Banks of the Rhine near Erfelden. No. 10 of Meyer's Memoir (1. c). 

 9-15. Bison priscus. Banks of the Rhine. Nos. 11- 16 of Meyer's Memoir (1. c). 



16. Bison priscus. Cast of specimen from Austrian Italy, in the Museum of Parma. (No. 1199 of 



Ward's Series of Casts.) 



17. Bison latifrons Leidy. Peale's original specimen. 



18. Bison latifrons. San Felipe, Texas. Specimen described by Dr. Carpenter. 



19. Bison latifrons. Adams County, Ohio. Measurements communicated by Dr. O. D. Norton. 



Synonymy and Nomenclature. — By European writers the remains of the ex- 

 tinct bisons found in North America have been always referred to the Bison 

 prisons of the Old World. Dr. Leidy, who is almost the only American 

 author who has written about them, has always viewed them as not only 

 distinct from the European, but has at different times regarded them as 

 belonging to several different species. 



The first specific systematic name, however, bestowed upon any species 

 of extinct bison was that of. latifrons, given by Dr. Harlan (see the pre- 

 ceding table of synonymy) in 1825. The specimen described by Harlan 

 was the now historic one described first by Peale, and subsequently by 

 Cuvier and Leidy ; but Harlan adds, " Similar fossil skulls have been found 

 in Europe, on the borders of the Rhine, near to Cracovie, in Bohemia," etc. 

 Previously the remains of the fossil bisons had all been universally referred 

 to the aurochs (Bison bonasus Gray), although in this same year Cuvier, in 

 the third edition of his " Ossemens Fossiles," admitted the fossil bison as a 

 third species, without, however, giving it a distinctive name* Two years 

 later Bojanus applied to the extinct bisons, including the American, the spe- 

 cific name of jjriscus (Urns jwiscus).!' 



* Dans ma premiere edition, j'avois considere les cranes fossiles d'Europe comme appartenant a l'aurochs 

 ordinaire, et ceux de Siberie comme provenant d'une espece perdue ; maintenant que j'ai reconnu les uns 

 et les autres pour etre de la memo espece, il s'agiroit de savoir s'ils seroient tons de l'aurochs ; mais comme 

 ]'e viens de constater aussi qu'ils ne ressemblent pas plus a l'aurochs que celui-ei ne ressemble ail bison 

 d' Amerique, et comme ces deux animaux sont distincts par l'espece, on ne voit pas pourquoi celui qui a produit 

 les grands cranes fossiles ne seroit pas d'une troisieme espece, aussi distincte que les deux premieres, et dont 

 les caracteres auroient tenu a d'autres parties qu'a la tete. La grandeur de ses comes pourroit deja le 

 faire soupconner, car les plus vieux bisons et les plus vieux aurochs n'ont que des comes mediocre?. M. 

 Hacquet m'eerit que les plus grands individus n'ont pas de noyaux de cornes de plus d'un pied de long." — 

 Ossemens Fossiles, 3d Ed., Tome IV, p. 148. 



f Bojanus's words are as follows ; " Quam prisci aevi terrarum etiam, a quibus hoc tempore prorsus 



