284 Mr. J. E. Gray on some new 



ficient has we think been advanced to justify the hypothesis 

 that these are the genuine remains of the ancient cattle of the 

 country, and too much praise cannot be given to the public 

 spirit of their present noble proprietor for his zealous care to 

 preserve, pure and untainted, this interesting relic of the 

 zoology of former times. 

 Alnwick, August 18, 1838. 



Note. — The Earl of Tankerville, in writing to Mr. Chil- 

 dren that he would most kindly send a skin and skull of 

 the wild oxen of Chillingham to the British Museum collec- 

 tion, communicated the following interesting particulars, 

 which we have taken the liberty of adding to Mr. Hindmarsh's 

 paper : — 



"I forgot to mention in my letter to Mr. Hindmarsh a cu- 

 rious circumstance with respect to the continuation of the 

 breed of the wild cattle. Several years since, during the early 

 part of the lifetime of my father, the bulls in the herd had 

 been reduced to three ; two of them fought and killed each 

 other, and the third was discovered to be impotent ; so that the 

 means of preserving the breed depended on the accident of 

 some of the cows producing a bull calf." — J. E. Gray. 



XXXIII. — On some new or little known Mammalia. By John 

 Edward Gray, F.R.S., Senior Assistant of the Zoological 

 Department jof the British Museum. 



[With two Plates.] 



Captain Clapperton and Colonel Denham, when they re- 

 turned from their expedition in Northern and Central Africa, 

 brought with them two heads of a species of ox, covered 

 with their skins. These heads are the specimens which are 

 mentioned in Messrs. Children and Vigors 3 accounts of the 

 animals collected in the expedition, as belonging to the buffalo, 

 Bos Bubalus, and they are stated to be called Zamouse by the 

 natives ; but, as no particular locality is given for the head, this 

 name is probably the one applied to the common buffalo, 

 which is found in most parts of North Africa. 



Having some years ago compared these heads with the skull 



