THE AMERICAN BISONS. 23 



also sufficiently resembles the fossil from Eschscholtz Bay, described by 

 Buckland and Richardson, and referred by the latter to an extinct species, 

 with the name Bison crassicornis, to render it probable that this may have 

 belonged to the same species";* and in his table of synonymy published at 

 this time he refers both B. antiquus and B. crassicornis to B. latifrons. 



Respecting the California specimen, in a fuller account of it published 

 later, with figures,! Dr. Leicly also says: "The specimen resembles the cor- 

 responding part of the skull of the living buffalo {Bison americanus) so closely 

 that it will be unnecessary to describe it in detail. Besides being larger, 

 the horn-cores are especially disproportionately larger, and are more trans- 

 verse in their direction, or are less inclined backward. The occiput appears 

 proportionately wider and lower from the less degree of prominence of its 

 summit. The latter is, however, wider, and is more distinctly defined from 

 the posterior occipital surface by the rougher and more prominent protu- 

 berance of attachment for the nuchal ligament. The occipital foramen is 

 no larger than in the buffalo, and the notch below, between the condyles, 

 is more contracted. The forehead, near its middle, is rather more protuber- 

 ant than in the buffalo." At this time he very properly deemed the material 

 insufficient to determine whether the remains from this continent of"- large 

 oxen which were contemporaneous with the American mastodon," and which 

 had been referred to several distinct species, l'eally pertain to more tban one. 

 He, however, still inclined to the opinion of the specific unity of all the 

 forms; "the more robust specimens," he says again, " probably belonged to 

 males, and the smaller ones to females." $ 



This view, however, as already stated, seems to me untenable, the fossil 

 bison remains thus far known apparently indicating two quite distinct extinct 

 species of bison in North America, the larger very much exceeding in size, 

 and doubtless otherwise differing from Bison priscus of Europe and Asia, and 

 the other of about the size of Bison priscus, but differing from it in important 

 features, and closely resembling in many points the bisons still existing. 



The Bison crassicornis of Richardson was based on " the fragment of a skull 

 brought home by Captain Beechey, and figured by Dr. Buckland in pi. iii, 

 fig. 1," § and " referred by him [Beechey] to Bos urns, by which is meant," 



* Ext. Mam. of North America, p. 373, 1869. 



t Ext. Vert. Faun., p. 253, pi. xxviii, figs. 4, 5, 1873. 



t Ibid., p. 253. 



§ Beechey's Voyage to the Pacific, Vol. II. 



