306 On Mans Influence in effecting 



particularly as the hair about the neck, withers, chest, and 

 shoulders, is much longer than that which covers the posteri- 

 or part of the trunk. The elevation of the anterior part of 

 the back in the zubr, is chiefly caused by the great length of 

 the spinous processes of the dorsal vertebra, in which also 

 that of the last vertebra colli partakes in a great measure. — 

 Those of the fourth to the seventh vertebrce are, however, not 

 the longest, though corresponding to the greatest height of 

 the back ; that of the second dorsal vertebra is the longest of 

 all, measuring 16 inches in length, French measure, and up- 

 wards, whereas in the common ox, it is never more than half 

 that length, and in the fossil B. primigenius, if reduced, by 

 subtracting one sixth, to the size of a zubr, where it is 16 in. 

 long, it would not be more than 12. The zubr has fourteen 

 pairs of ribs,* and only five lumbar vertebrce, whereas the B. 

 taurus, as well as the B. primigenius, and most other species, 

 has thirteen and six respectively. Besides-, the skeleton of 

 the zubr is of a lighter make. 



The head of the zubr is smaller and shorter in proportion 

 than that of the common ox. The surface of the occiput forms 

 an obtuse angle with the frontal bone in the former, and an 

 acute one in the latter. The forehead of the zubr is broader, 

 owing to the great depth of the orbits, which project like tubes 

 and are convex, whereby the facial angle becomes greater than 

 in the B. taurus. The horns do not rise, as in the latter, at 

 the crown of the head, or at the ends of the line separating 

 the occiput from the frontal bone, but about opposite the mid- 

 dle of the convexity of the forehead, or two inches before the 

 line just mentioned. Of their form we shall speak afterwards, 

 as those of the B. taurus have no constant form whatever. — 

 The tube-like orbits, which are narrower at the rim than in 

 their hollow part, have such a direction that the eyes, though 

 at a greater distance from each other, point less sideways than 

 in the B. taurus. The bare part of the muzzle in the zubr, 



* Bojanus states that the male Bos urus has fourteen, but the female on- 

 ly thirteen pairs of ribs. But he is contradicted by two later observers, Ja- 

 rocky, (1. c. p. 37), and Eichwald, (Naturhistorische Skitze von Lithauen), 

 who most positively ascribe fourteen pairs of ribs to both sexes. How so 

 accurate an observer as Bojanus was led into an error, which must have 

 struck him as very paradoxical, it is difficult to explain, unless we suppose 

 that the zubr cow which he obtained for the museum of Wilna, was a mon- 

 strum per defectum. However, the circumstance ought not to be overlooked, 

 that only the skeleton of the male, presented at the same time by the Empe- 

 ror Alexander, was prepared for the museum, whereby a mistake on the part 

 of Bojanus becomes somewhat less improbable. As for the minor differen- 

 ces in the skeletons of the two species, I must refer the reader to that au- 

 thor's monograph of the urus, as well as to Cuvier. 



