25 8 THE OX AND ITS KINDRED 
which incline forwards, with an outward direction 
only at the tips, and project but little above the 
crown of the head, the sketch might almost serve for 
a rude portrait of the living American bison. 
The two sketches are regarded by Dr. Hilzheimer^ 
as severally representing the living and the extinct 
European bisons. And if these identifications be 
correct, it is evident that both these animals were 
living in France during the older stone age. But 
closely allied species of approximately equal bodily 
size are not found at the present day living actually 
in company ; and it is accordingly suggested by Dr. 
Hilzheimer that while B. bonasus was, as it is at the 
present day, an inhabitant of the forests, B. priscus 
was a denizen of the open plains. It should be 
added, in connection with the above identification, 
that the extinct European species approximates in 
certain details connected with the skull and horns to 
the American bison. 
This, however, does not by any means complete the 
story of the extinct European bison, for Dr. Hilz- 
heimer ^ has described, under the name of Bison 
tirifonnis, the hind part of a fossil skull from Klinge, 
near Kottbus, in northern Germany, which differs 
in the form of the horns and certain other details 
from the typical B. priscus. It is, however, suggested 
that it may be only a local race of that species; 
which, if the specimen be not a hybrid, seems more 
probable. 
For many years the range of the extinct European 
bison was believed to extend into Siberia, inclusive 
of the New Siberian Islands, which lie within the 
Mitt. Kbnigl. NcUuralienkabinett Stuttgart , 1909, p. 257. 
2 Op. cit. 1910, p. 141. 
