ORDER RUMINANTIA. 415 



still acknowledged their existence in certain parks of Mas- 

 sovia, kept no doubt for curiosity, as is done at present 

 with the Bison, and in this country with a variety of Urus ; 

 and they can be traced in their more degenerate descendants 

 to a period sufficiently late, not to require the aid of fancy 

 for refuting the remarks made by authors that Herberstein 

 had mistaken the Buffalo for the real Urus*. Seneca and 

 Pliny, as before stated, distinguished the Urus, and the 

 latter complains of the vulgar, among whom Martial must 

 be included, for applying the wrong name of Bubalus to 

 the present species. 



Illi cessit atrox Bubalus atque Bison. 



We next find the martyr Saturninus attached to the horns 

 of a wild bull, and dragged to death at Toulouse on the 

 spot, where afterwards one of the most ancient churches of 

 Gaul was built, named du Taur. Baron Cuvier quotes 

 Gregory of Tours to prove their existence in the Vosges 

 Mountains, under the name of Bubalus, in the reign of 

 Gontram, and also in the Ardennes proved by a passage in 

 the poet Fortunatus, where Gogon the first known maire 

 of the palace of Austrasia is represented hunting. 



Ardenna, an Vosagus, cervi, caprse, helicis ursi 



Caede sag'ittifera silva fragore tonat, 



Seu validi Bubali ferit inter corniia campum. 



The animal is also mentioned in the German verses 

 quoted from the Niebelungen — 



* The words of Herberstein, are formal, f* Uros sola Massovia, 

 Lithuanian contermina habet ; quos ibi patrio nomine Thur vocant; 

 non est magna eorum copia; suntque certi pagi, quibus cura et 

 custodia eorum incumbit nee fere aliter quam in vivariis quibusdam 

 servantur." — De rebus Moscovicis Comment.., p. 33. The plate is 

 not to be mistaken, and with regard to the name of Buffalo, we 

 have seen that in Polish, it is Buwol,and well known in that king- 

 dom. In the earliest map of Poland, both the Urus and Bison are 

 figured. 



