18 TIIE AMERICAN BISONS. 



In IS-jO Fischer also gave the name latifrom to a species of fossil bison 

 described from remains found in Siberia, which he appears to have regarded 

 as new, without, however, apparently being aware that the same name had 

 been already given to fossil bison remains from America, or that the name 

 prisms had been proposed for the extinct bison of Europe, he referring to 

 only Cuvier's works in his discussion of the subject. 



In 1832 H. v. Meyer, recognizing the fossil bison as a species distinct from 

 the aurochs, gave references to the literature of the subject, and a list of the 

 countries in which its remains had been found. He alludes to it under the 

 name "Bos (Bison) priscus Bojanus," referring it for the first time to Hamilton- 

 Smith's - subgenus " Bison. Meyer appears also to have been the first author 

 who associated the name priscus with either Bos or Bison. Neither of these 

 generic terms were used by Bojanus in connection with the specific name 

 priscus, although Bojanus is almost invariably cited as the author of this 

 association.* 



Owen, in 1843, used the name Urus, in a generic sense, for the bison, 

 without reference, however, to Bojanus, Owen employing it in this sense 

 entirely independently of any previous author'. 



In 1842 Dr. Harlan referred a fragment of jaw, having very much 

 worn teeth, found in digging the Brunswick Canal, Georgia, to the genus 

 8us, believing it to represent a new species of that genus, which he called 

 Sus americanus. The same specimen was afterwards referred to LopModon by 

 Professor Owen, who still later regarded it as forming a new genus, which he 



abest, indigenam, Rhinocerotis staturae bclluam. Uri prisci nomine, aliis auctoribus iam recepto, desig- 

 namus." — Not. Act Acad. Wat Curios., Vol. XIII. Pari ii. p. 427. The date usually quoted for Bojauus'a 

 name of priscus i- 1825, which i- the date of writing; the volume i- dated l*'_'7. 



* 'Hi'- phraseology used by Bojanus, as already shown, was "Urus prison*," but only once have I been 

 able in find tin- name Urus priscus Bojanus given among the Bynonymes of any Bpe< Meyer, 



in 1832, wrote "Bos ( Bison) priscus Bojanus," and in 1885, simply u Bos priscus Bojanus," evidently citing 

 ; i- the authority for only the specific name. In 1846 Owen, in his synonymy (Brit Fossil Mam. 



and Birds, p, 491 ) of Bison priscus, wrote " Bos (Bison) priscus Bojanus, Nov. Act Acad. Nat Cur., i. 

 XIII."! In 1854 Richardson said, " Bojanus, in 1885, bestowed the name of Bos {Bison) priscus on the 

 fossil species" (Zool. Voy. Herald, p. .'(l). while Dr. .1 E. Gray, in 1852, In liis synonymy of the genu 

 Bison, «-i t • ■ — "Bison Bojanus, X. Act. Acad. Nat Cur., XIII"; l>m Bojanus, as above stated, did not dm 

 the w.ir'l Bison at all in a generic sense in the article in question. Lilljeborg is the onlj author who has, *o 



I ive seen, given the references to Bojanus properly. In liis Fauna ofver Sverlges och Norgee 

 i, is,7i). |.. B77, under Bos bonasus l.innc. lie i it. - Bojanus as follows: " Urus 



I.. II Bojahto. De uro nostrate ejusque acetate, Commentatio ; Nova Acta Physico-Medica 

 Acad. Caesar. Loop. ('...ol. Nat Curios., T. XIII, pars II.. la. pag. 118, 1887." He also gives " (/r*M 

 , lei m ii.in, pag. \i'i." 



