is not necessary to change it. The Sclavonic name is Zubr or Suber. It is a great beast, standing 6 feet or so in height at the shoulder. It ranged further over Europe well within the historic period. In the days of Charlemagne it was spread over Germany and was a beast of the chase. In the year 1848 the Emperor of Russia presented a pair of these Oxen to the Zoological Society of London. At the time of their presentation an interesting communication was made to the Society by M. Dolmatoff, on the method of the capture of these two examples. The creature is not easy to capture and is alarming to confront. "The eyes," says an old writer, "are red and fiery; the looks are furious and commanding." It has of course the shaggy mane and hump of the American animal. The herd in Lithuania was said to be 1900 in the year 1856. Mr. E. N. Buxton,[1] who has lately visited the forest, quotes M. Neverli to the effect that at present the numbers are not more than 700.
Fig. 167.—Bison. Bison americanus. × 1⁄25.
Allied to this animal, and apparently still nearer to the American Bison, is the extinct B. priscus of Europe. The Pleistocene Bisons of North America, B. antiquus and B. latifrons, are not remote from the living forms. Finally, the Miocene B. sivalensis from India, and the Pliocene B. ferox and B. alleni of North America, take back this group to as remote a period as any other genus of Oxen.
- ↑ Proc. Zool. Soc. 1899, p 64.
