ORDER RUMINANTIA. 397 



hair, which also predominates in summer on the shoulders. 

 The hide is double in thickness to that of the Ox, and the 

 species shews a decided aversion to domestic cattle. 



The name Aurochs, applied to the Bison by the Germans, 

 is evidently the origin of the Latin Urus ; but Baron Cuvier, 

 following up with his usual research the observations of 

 Herberstein, establishes beyond a doubt, that the true Urus 

 may still have existed in some parts of Massovia by the 

 name of Thur in the time of the last-mentioned author, 

 but that it is now extinct in Europe and Western Asia, and 

 its name transferred to the Bison of the Ancients, which 

 the Poles at this day still distinguish by the appellation of 

 Zubr, and the ancient Germans called Wizend and Bisam 

 (Musk). The Baron explains the causes which have mis- 

 led naturalists, and caused them to overlook the Bison in 

 the Bonasus, Bolinthus, Monepus, Monapus, and the Poeo- 

 nian Oxen of Aristotle and Pliny, who clearly distinguishes 

 the maned Bison from the rapid Urus, and Seneca still 

 more distinctly says, 



Tibi dant varise pectora tigris 

 Tibi villosi terga Bisontes 

 Latisque feri cornibus Uri. 



Pausanias and Oppian both represent the Bison as very 

 hairy about the neck and breast, place it in Pceonia and 

 Thrace, and repeat almost the very words which Aristotle 

 uses for the Bonasus. 



But the Bisons of Europe are not the only species of the 

 group; for, beside the American, Asia, in all probability, 

 contains two more. All appear to live in small families, 

 which assemble into herds only in certain seasons : those 

 of the Old World prefer woods and mountains. In America, 

 from causes probably local, they are mostly found on open 

 elevated plains or savannas. Notwithstanding the hostility 

 between the Bison and the Ox, it is asserted that in Ame- 

 rica, the males often drive the Bull from the Cows, and 



