THE AMERICAN BISONS. 61 



To the Spanish colonists the American bison was commonly known under 

 the name of Cibola, but some Spanish writers speak of it under the name 

 Bisonte, while De Laet and others called it Armenia. Bceuf sauvage was the 

 name given it by Du Pratz, though often also called Baffle, Vache sauvage, 

 and sometimes Bison d'Ameritjue, by the early French colonists, while the 

 Canadian voyageurs are said to term it simply le bceuf . Kahn spoke of the 

 American bisons as Wilde Ochsen und Kiihe, while the early English explorers 

 also often referred to this animal under the same English equivalent, and 

 also used for it the names Buffle and Bceuf sauvage. These two last-mentioned 

 names were also applied, by both the early French and the early English 

 explorers, to the Moose (Alces malchis) and the elk ( Cervas canadensis). 

 Charlevoix called the bison the Bceuf du Canada. Marquette called it the 

 Pisikious, adopting the name then current among the Illinois Indians, while 

 Hennepin called it Taureau sauvage. Lawson and Bricknell used the name 

 Buffelo, which name, modified to Buffalo, was employed by Catesby and was 

 early adopted by the English colonists. According to Richardson it is called 

 Peechcek by the Algonquins, Adgiddah by the Chepewyans, and Moostoosh by 

 the Crees. 



In the United States this animal has generally borne the name of buffalo, 

 though discriminating writers persist that the name is erroneous, and that 

 it should be culled the American bison. The latter is undoubtedly its correct 

 English cognomen, but probably among the people generally the name buf- 

 falo will never be supplanted. The term American buffalo is doubtless 

 defensible for those who prefer it, and even buffalo is no more a misnomer 

 than scores of the names of our common mammals and birds. The name 

 Robin, as applied to Tardus migralorius, is even more objectionable than that 

 of buffalo as applied to the American bison. The name bufalo is of course 

 strictly applicable only to the genus Bubalus, embracing the true African and 

 Indian buffaloes. 



Figures of the American Bison. — The first figure of the bison ever published 

 is doubtless that given by Thevet in 1558,* three years after the publication 

 of Vaca's "Journal," in which occurs the earliest description of the American 

 bison. This is an extremely rude figure, having but little resemblance to 

 the bison. In 1633 De Laetf published another equally faulty. Nierem- 

 burg,J in 1635, and Hernandez, § in 1651, published others, which so much 

 resemble Thevet's that they seem to be merely enlarged, slightly modified 



* Les Singularitez de la France Antarctique, p. 145. 



f Amer., p. 303. % Hist. Nat., p. 181. § Mex., p. 587. 



