BISON, the name given to two species of ruminating animals belonging to the ox family; (1) the aurochs; (2) an analogous species, now nearly extinct, but once in countless herds roaming over the N. W. plains of the United States. Bisons have proportionately a larger head than oxen, with a conical hump be tween the shoulders and a shaggy mane. Two species are known: 1. Bison americanus, or bonasus amer icanvs, the American bison, popularly but erroneously called the buffalo. It has 15 ribs on each side, while the Eu ropean bison has but 14, and the domes tic ox 13. These animals once roamed in herds in the western parts of 'Can ada and the United States. The only representatives of the species at the present day being a small herd gathered and protected by the United States Gov ernment in the Yellowstone National Park, a few individuals in the more re mote Canadian regions, and still other small numbers of them grouped in zo ological collections, such as that at Lin coln Park, Chicago; the Agricultural Fair Grounds, St. Louis; Zoological Gar
den, New York City, etc.
2. Bison priscus, sometimes called bo nasus bison, the European bison. It is the bonassos or bonasos of Aristotle, the bison of Oppian, the bison jubatus, and the bonasus of Pliny, the bos bison of Linnaeus, and the bison europxus and priscus of Owen. It is often called the aurochs, which is etymologically the same word as Cwsar's 'urns, but the two species are distinct. Caesar's ox is best distinguished as the urox, leaving the word aurochs to be monopolized by the European bison. The urox was a gen uine bos, the bos urus or primogenius, which Prof. Boyd Dawkins believes to have been a giant variety (and no more) of the ordinary bos taurus. The Euro pean bison was once a British animal, though now found only fossil.