Oxen 5 



sheep, and (5) the goat, with their numerous breeds. Oi the first, the 

 wild ancestral stock, although well known, is now extinct. Of the second 

 and fourth not only is the ancestral stock extinct, but it is also totally- 

 unknown ; while of the third and fifth the original wild form still 

 survives. 



I. The Oxen — Genus Bos 



Bos, Linn. SysL Nut. ed. 12, vol. i. p. 98 (1766). 



Characters. — Size generally large, but occasionally medium, or even 

 small ; build massive and stout ; neck short and deep, and the head carried 

 but little, if at all, above the level of the back ; frequently a large dewlap 

 to the throat. Extremity of muzzle large, broad, naked, and moist ; no 

 glands on the face or between the hoofs; four teats in the female; ears 

 large, pointed, and often nearly naked, except on the margins ; tail 

 long, cylindrical, and frequently tufted at the tip, rarely long-haired 

 throughout ; main hoofs more or less pointed, and lateral hoofs well 

 developed. Horns present in both sexes of the existing forms ; generally 

 not greatly larger in the males than in the females, but wanting in females 

 of some extinct species ; placed on or near the vertex of the skull and 

 more or less separated at the bases ; at first generally directed somewhat 

 outwardly, then curving upwards, and sometimes also inwards at the tips ; 

 in section varying from cylindrical to triangular ; externally either perfectly 

 smooth, or marked with irregular transverse ridges and valleys ; in colour 

 varying from olive-green to black. Pelage either short and silky, or long 

 and shaggy ; generally no very marked difference, at least in colour, 

 between summer and winter coat ; general coloration usually uniform, but 

 in some cases the lower portions of the legs, and rarely the buttocks, 

 white, and in one or two instances a few white spots on the sides of the 

 face. Upper molar teeth with very tall and squared crowns, on the inner 

 side of which there is a slender cylindrical additional column of dentine 



