WILD OXEN, SHEEP, AND GOATS OF ALL LANDS, 

 LIVING AND EXTINCT 



In the Di'tr of All Lauih^ to which the present volume is intended as a 

 companion, it has heen stated that the family Bovidte, or Hollow-horned 

 Ruminants, form a group of the section Pecora^ in which are also 

 included the Prong-buck, or Antilocaprhlce ; the Giraffes, or Girajfidir ; and 

 the Deer, or Cervidcf. And as the distinctive features of the Pccora 

 have been mentioned in that volume, it is unnecessary that they should 

 be recapitulated here. 



All the existing wild members of the great family Bovhla are readily 

 characterised by the possession of a pair of bony appendages to the skull, 

 clothed during life with hollow unbranched horns which are never 

 shed, but grow continuously at the base, while their summits become 

 more or less abraded and rounded by wear and tear. Although in many 

 members of the family these appendages are confined to the males, in 

 almost all of those forming the subject of the present volume they are 

 developed in both sexes, although frequently much smaller in the females 

 than in the males. 



The presence of these unbranched horns thus suffices to distinguish 

 the members of the family not only from the Deer and Giraffes, but 

 likewise from the Prong-buck, in which the horns, although of the same 



