3i8 



AUROCHS AND WISENT 



slightly through domestication. It is, however, said not to cross 

 in a state of nature with the Ga.ur.-* 



Fig. 166. — Gayal. Bos frontalis, x t,\, 



The Banteng, B. sondaicus, is distributed through Chittagong, 

 Tenasserim, and the Malay Peninsula to Java and Borneo. There 

 are apparently two races of this animal. The species differs from 

 the others 1 ly the fact that the horns are smaller and more curved ; 

 there is a white caudal disc ; the forehead is narrower and the 

 skull longer than in the others. 



The American Bison and the European Aurochs form another 

 section ; they are indeed extremely alike, specific differences being 

 hardly recognisable. The Bison of America, formerly present in 

 such numbers that the prairies were black with countless herds, 

 lias now diminished to about a thousand head. 



One of the largest of existing Bovidae is the Aurochs, Wisent, or 

 Em'opean Bison, Bos honasus (or Bison europaeus). It is exceedingly 

 like its American relative. Formerly the animal was much more 

 widely spread than it is now, extending its range from Europe into 

 North America. It is now limited to certain districts on the Urals, 

 in the Caucasus, and a herd of them are kept up through the 

 fostering care of the Emperor of Eussia in the forest of Bielovege 

 in Lithuania. The term " Aurochs " should not really be applied to 

 this species but to the Wild Cattle, Bos taurus. It is, however, so 

 i^'cnerally used for the Wisent (which is the German name) that it 



' See Proc. Zool. Soc. 1890, p. 592. 



