298 GENERAL VIEWS ON ARCHyEOLOGY. 



but the Danes, who are pretty well acquainted in that region, know 

 nothing about it. 1 



Our domestic fowl (G alius domesticus) has not been found in the 

 Kjoekkenmoedding . The well established absence of the two kinds of 

 swallows, inhabiting now-a-days the constructions of men in Denmark, 

 the chimney swallow (Hirundo rustica, L.) and the window swallow, 

 (Hirundo urbica, L.,) and then again that of the sparrow (Fringilla 

 domestica, L.) and the stork, (Ciconia alba, Bel.,) is nothing very 

 surprising. 



The quadrupeds, whose remains are most numerous^ are : 



The Deer, (Cervus elaphus, L.) 



The Roe-buck, (Cervus capreolus, L.) 



The Wild-boar, (Sus scrofa, L.) 

 These three species are no where deficient ; they constituted evi- 

 dently the principal food of the primitive population as regards land 

 animals. 



The Urus, (Bos urus or promigenius,) 



The Beaver, (Castor jiber, L.,) and 



The Phoca, (Phocq gryphus, Fab.,) 

 are likewise species often met with, and which have constantly served 

 for food to the primitive population. Now, the beaver has entirely 

 disappeared from Denmark, the phoca is still seen in the Kattegat, 

 though very rarely, and the Urus is an extinct species. Speaking of 

 the latter, it will not be amiss to enter into some details resjiecting 

 the genus Bos, for species are often confounded. Many persons think, 

 for example, that the wild ox of Lithuania is the Urus, whereas 

 it is the bison. Setting aside the decidedly fossil oxen, we distinguish 

 the following species : 



1°. i?os primigenius, (Boj.) Bos urus, (Nilsson.) Bos primigenius, 

 (Owen.) Thur, Ur, and Urochs, according to the Germans. A spe- 

 cies now extinct, but which must have still been in existence in Swit- 

 zerland in the tenth century of our era, for it figures among the num- 

 ber of viands that appeared in those days at the table of the monks of 

 St. G-all. The manuscript 2 mentions the Urus, the Wisent, and a 

 wild ox which seems to have been simply the offspring of the domes- 

 tic ox gone back to the wild state, and which, according to Tschudi, 3 

 was still hunted in the sixteenth century. 



2°. Bos bison, (Auct.) Urus nostras, (Boj.) Bison europoeus, (Leidy.) 

 Aurox, so called by the French. The Wisent and Bison of the Ger- 

 mans and the Zuhr of the Poles, Bonasus of the ancients. A species 



1 Mr. Steenstrup has published a whole treatise on the great penguin in the scientific com- 

 munications of the Natural History Assemblies of Copenhagen, 1855. 



2 Benedictiones ad mensas Ekkeharde monachi Sangallensis. Memoirs of the Society of the 

 Antiquaries of Zurich, vol. III. Here is the passage in question : 



Signet uesontem bencdictio comipolentem 

 Dextra dei ueri comes assit carnibus uri 

 Sit 60s siluanus sub trino nomine sanus. 

 Sit feralis equi caro dulcis in hac crucc Christi. 

 However veson comipotens and urus may here be nothing more than synonyms of the 

 same species. That is, at least, the opinion of Mr. Steenstrup. 

 3 Tschudl. The Alps. Berne, 1859. 



