Yak 



51 



relatively small, the sockets of the eyes tubular, and the nasal bones 

 comparatively short and widely separated from the premaxilhc. Withers 

 high ; ribs varying from fourteen to fifteen pairs. Tail reaching about to 

 the hocks. Long hair developed either on the fore-quarters or Hanks ; 

 general colour either uniform black or brown. 



In the typical members of the group the neural spine ^ of the seventh 

 cervical vertebra is elevated, so as to form a continuation of those of the 

 dorsal series, which are very tall and descend rapidly and suddenly to the 

 lumbars. Whether the same feature exists in the yak, I have been unable 

 to ascertain. It is the most specialised development of this part of the 

 skeleton met with among all the oxen. 



Distnhiitio?!. — The Holarctic and Sonoran regions, extending during the 

 Pliocene period into the Oriental, and in the Plistocene into the Neo- 

 tropical region. 



I. The Yak — Bos grunniens 



Bos grill! nil' us, Linn. Syst. Niit. ed. 12, vol. i. p. 99 (1766) ; Sundevall, 

 A'. Sveiiska Vet. Ak. Hamil. for 1844, p. 153 (1846) ; Radde, Rciscn Ost- 

 Sihirien, p. 272 (1861) ; Severtzoff, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 4, vol. xviii. 

 p. 336 (1876) ; Kinloch, Large Game Shooting, \'o\. ii. p. 5 (1876) ; Flower 

 and Garson, Cat. OsteoL Mas. Coll. Surg. pt. ii. p. 227 (1884) ; W. L. 

 Sclater, Cat. Manini. Jnd. Mas. pt. ii. p. 128 (1891) ; Blanford, Fauna Brit. 

 India — Manini. p. 490 (1891) ; Ward, Records of Big Game., p. 277 

 (1896). 



Bos poephagus., H. Smith, in Griffith's Animal Kingdom., vol. iv. p. 404 

 (1827) ; Pallas, Zoogr. Rosso-Asiat. vol. i. p. 248, pi. xxii. (181 i) ; 

 Hodgson and Blyth, Journ. As. Soc. Bengal, vol. xv. p. 143 (1846). 



Bos [Bison) poephagus, H. Smith, in Griffith's Animal Kingdom, vol. v. 

 p. 374 (1827). 



1 See note on p. 8. 



