OXEN. 
189 
short nasal bones by a much longer interval than in the yak and the gaur; and are 
thus very widely different from those of the typical oxen, which are prolonged up¬ 
wards to join the elongated nasals. 
Bison are further characterised by the great excess in the height of the 
withers over the hind-quarters, owing to the great length of the spines of the 
vertebrae in the fore-part of the trunk, as displayed in the figure of the skeleton on 
p. 158. This produces a distinct hump on the shoulders, which passes, however, 
gradually into the line of the back without the sudden descent characterising the 
gaur. The great development of the fore-quarters appears to be intensified by the 
mass of dark brown hair with which the back of the head, neck, shoulders, and 
chest are covered, and which extends far down on the fore-limbs. The long hair is 
likewise continued as a kind of crest along the middle of the back nearly to the 
root of the tail; the tail itself being tufted at the end, and reaching some distance 
below the hocks. The remainder of the body is covered with short curly hair of a 
somewhat lighter tint than that clothing the fore-quarters. In summer the long¬ 
hair over all the body is shed in large patches, thus showing the nearly bare skin 
clothed with short mouse-coloured hair, as exhibited in our coloured illustration. 
Both the European and the American bison are very closely allied, and we shall 
reserve our notice of their distinctive differences till we come to the second of the 
two species. Owing to a confusion of terms, the name aurochs, which properly 
belongs to the extinct wild ox of Europe, has been very generally applied to the 
European or true bison, but it may be hoped that this misapplication will soon be 
a thing of the past. 
The European bison is a forest-dwelling animal, having been 
always absent from the open plains of Southern Russia, which in 
many respects resemble the habitat of its North American cousin. Formerly this- 
species, as attested both by historical documents and by its semi-fossilised remains, 
was abundant over a large area of Europe, but it is now restricted to the forests of 
Bialowitza in Lithuania, to the Caucasus, and, it is said, to portions of Moldavia and 
Wallachia. Fossil remains of the bison are met with in the caverns and superficial 
deposits of England, France, Switzerland, Germany, and Italy; the earliest deposits 
in which they occur being the brick - earths of the Thames valley, where they 
are associated with those of the mammoth, and in the still older “ forest-bed ” 
of the Norfolk coast. The fossil race was, indeed, of larger dimensions, and 
had longer and rather straigliter horns than its existing representative ; but 
these differences cannot well be regarded as of specific importance. From 
Britain the bison disappeared at a much earlier date than the aurochs, none of 
its remains occurring in the fens and turbaries, where those of the latter are so 
common. Northwards the range of the bison formerly extended into Siberia ; 
while its remains have also been obtained from the frozen soil of Eschcholtz 
Bay in Alaska. 
The bison now living in Lithuania are specially protected by the- 
Russian Government and are under the charge of a staff of keepers, but 
those of the Caucasus are thoroughly wild. Although living at a greater altitude, 
and thus exposed to a more intense cold, the bison of the Caucasus are less thickly 
haired than are those of Lithuania. Bison were abundant in the Black Forest in the 
Distribution. 
Habits. 
