236 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



brachyurus is attributed the uniformly coloured and unspotted 

 races, with short strong horns, such as the Highland. Brittany, 

 Auvergne, and Schwyz breeds. Professor Boyd Daw kins, writing 

 on this point, says, '"the Bos longifrons. which, in our opinion, will 

 uUimately be found to be specifically identical witli Bos taurus, 

 was the variety that supplied Roman legionaries in Britain with 

 beef. Whether or ijot the great Urus and the small Shorthorn (^Bos 

 longifro7is) be extinct or live — the one in the large domestic 

 cattle of Europe, as the Flemish oxen and those of Holstein and 

 Friesland. the other in the smaller breeds — has not yet been 

 satisfactorily decided." 



Fig. 6.— The Bison (after Gesner, 1551). 



We have seen that Bos longifrons was the only variety in pre- 

 Eoman remains, and the middens of Roman camps show us that 

 it is the onlv ox used bv the Romans generallv. According to 

 the " Edinburgh Review," Bos longifrons was the principal food 

 in France, Germanv, Britain, and Italv throuo;hout the Bronze 

 and Iron Ages. Bos longifrons may have developed from Bos 

 priTTiigeriius, but this leads to idle speculation. Anyway it has 



