DISTRIBUTION OF THE EUROPEAN AND CAUCASIAN BISON. 5 



Tauroscythia to mean Moldavia.* Edward von Czynk assigns a 

 much later period for the existence of the Bison in the forests of 

 Csik, Udwarhely, and Gyergyo, giving 1814 as the year of the last 

 one's death in the Siebenbiirgen.f 



Numbers were said to inhabit the Gyergyo mountains in 

 1534, and even a century later. 



Mecklenburg has an ox's head on its coat of arms; the family 

 of Count Was in Hungary a Bison's head ; while the Lazar family 

 above referred to bears upon its shield a Bison pierced by an 

 arrow. We may add that a print published by Anton Wied of 

 Danzig in 1555 represents a Urus (Bison) being killed with a 

 long spear. 



In the Russian empire the Bison is only found wild in two 

 districts. To deal first with the most easterly, the story of the 

 Argonauts and their fire-breathing bulls (reminding one strongly 

 of the Greek account of the African Gnu) is probably the earliest 

 mention of the Bison in the Caucasus, that difficult country to cross, 

 which entirely blocks the narrow strip of land which separates the 

 Black Sea from the Caspian. I imagine these ''fire-breathing" 

 animals to be Bison, whose defiant eyes when angry become 

 glowing red.! 



The earliest reliable information about this animal dates 

 probably from the year 1633, when mention is made of wild 

 Buffaloes on the borders of Abkasia.§ 



The fact that so little has been heard of the animal since that 

 time may be accounted for in two ways. Being very alert as well 

 as very shy, and clever in hiding from its pursuers when once 

 warned, it may have gradually withdrawn into the higher parts 

 of the mountain range, where it would be safe. Fischer Sigwart, 

 in his interesting little work on mountains as a refuge for wild 

 animals, || enumerates the European mammalia which eventually 

 found there the only conditions favourable to their existence ; the 

 European Bison, which gradually died out, is not one of these. 

 The Caucasian animal, however, found a cool retreat there in 



* ' Beitrage zur Kenntniss des russischen Eeichs,' 1883, vi. p. 16. 

 f 'Neue Deutsche Jagd-Zeitung,' xiii. p. 196; « Zoologische Garten,' 

 1889, p. 281. 



I Keller, ' Tiere des Klass. Altertums,' p. 57. 



§ Eichwald, ' Beitrage zur Kenntniss des russischen Beichs,' vi. p. 16, 



|| ' Das Gebirge ein Riickzugsgebiet fur die Tierwel 



