Dr Morton 07i Hybrid Animals and Plants. 267 



Bovine Hybrids. — In the argument in question, the ox tribe 

 has ahvays been referred to as one of the strongest evidences 

 of the operation of local causes in producing varieties of breed. 

 But the parent type or stock is wholly unknown to naturalists ; 

 and although it corresponds in its osteological structure with 

 a fossil species {Bos urus) found throughout Europe, it is 

 extremely doubtful whether all the modifications now fami- 

 liar to man are derived from this animal. " An opinion has 

 lately been started," observes a learned zoologist, " that the 

 haunched varieties of cattle are derived from a different spe- 

 cies ; against which no conclusive objection can well be made, 

 when it is considered that the Gayal {Bos gavceus) produces 

 a mixed race with the domestic animal ; and that the yak of 

 Tartary {Bos grunniens), and even the American bison, are 

 equally reported to mix with that species, notwithstanding 

 their anatomical differences, and that the times of gestation 

 are not similar."* 



The hybrid offspring of the buffalo and the common breed 

 of cattle is now familiar in the western parts of the United 

 States, particularly in Missouri and Kentucky ; but I have 

 not yet ascertained whether they have ever bred again among 

 themselves, or with either of the parent stocks.f I have in- 

 stituted inquiries on this subject, the results of which I hope 

 to add as a sequel to this memoir. In fact, it is now con- 

 ceded that all the species of the genus Bos are similarly cir- 

 cumstanced ; X whence we have no difficulty in supposing that 

 among the ox tribe, as among various other classes of ani- 

 mals, hybridity has more or less modified their forms during 

 the long lapse of thousands of years. 



Bovine and Cervine Hybrid ? — The Baron Larrey inciden- 

 tally mentions, in his Memoirs, the following circumstance 

 that occurred during his residence at the Bay de Croc, in 

 Newfoundland; " The Carabou {Cervus Wapiti) sometimes 

 comes near the houses. In the night, one of them broke into 

 our sheep-fold, where we had a cow, that became pregnant 



* Griffith's Cuvier, iv., p. 419. — Prichard's Researches, i., p. 141. 

 t Desmoulins, however, speaks positively in the afifirmative. — Hist. Not des 

 Races Uuiuaines, p. 195. 



X Tjouilon's Magazine of Nat. Hist., ix., p. 611. 



