THE AMERICAN BISONS. 19 



named Harlanus, and considered it as a form allied to the tapiroid pachy- 

 derms. In 1854 Dr. Leidy accidentally came across the same specimen, and 

 found it to be not only not suiline but to belong to " a true ruminant, and 

 this the Bison Mifrons" * 



In 1846 Professor Owen f wrote respecting the affinities of the fossil bison 

 with the aurochs as follows : " The remains of the ancient European bisons 

 attest their larger size, and larger and somewhat less bent horns than are 

 manifested by the individuals of the present race, but no satisfactory specific 

 distinction has been detected in the fossils compared with the bones of the 

 Lithuanian aurochs." Later, after comparing the bones of the existing 

 wild aurochs with " those of the fossil aurochs," and pointing out the observ- 

 able differences, he says : " Admitting with Cuvier, that such characters are 

 neither constant nor proper for the distinction of species, we may recognize 

 in the confined sphere of existence to which the aurochs has been progres- 

 sively reduced, precisely the conditions calculated to produce a general loss 

 of size and strength, and a special diminution of the weapons of offence and 

 defence. I cannot perceive, therefore, any adequate ground for abandoning 

 the conclusion to which I had arrived from a study of the less perfect mate- 

 rials available to that end, before the arrival of the entire skeleton of the 

 Lithuanian aurochs, namely, that this species was contemporary with the 

 mammoth, the tichorhine rhinoceros, and other extinct mammals of the plio- 

 cene period." t 



Professor Nilsson, in 1847, also considered the fossil and living aurochs as 

 one and the same species ; the living aurochs differing from the extinct 

 form mainly (as he believed) in its smaller size, he regarded as the degener- 

 ate descendant of the fossil aurochs. M. Gervais, § a year or two later, also 

 took substantially the same view, referring the B. prisons of authors to the 

 B. bonasus Linn. 



Dr. Leidy in 1852 considered the remains of the large extinct bison 

 found in America as specifically distinct from the European, to which 

 view he seems to have ever since adhered. He also at this time referred 

 another specimen, which from its size seemed to represent a smaller animal, 

 to a second species, which he called Bison antiquus. This he has since 



* Proc. Acad. Nat. Sciences, Phila., 1854. 



t Hist. British Fossil Mammals and Birds, p. 493. 



t Ibid., p. 515. 



§ Zool. ct Palc'unt. Franchises, I, 73, 1848- 1852. 



