EVEN-TOED UNGULATES (aETIODACTYLa) 245 



at the base, which are never found on the horns of 

 any of the wild cattle. 



This horn of the British aurochs was fished up out 

 of the river Ribble, and is now in the Blackburn 

 Museum. 



In Pleistocene times there were three species of 

 cattle : The great bison^ or Bos 'prisciis ; the aurochs 

 {Box taiiru.^), which Millais calls Bos 'primigenius, 

 and the European bison, Bos honasus, which is often 

 erroneously called the aurochs, thus causing greater 

 confusion in an already difficult group. The true 

 aurochs, Bos taurus or primigenius, and the Euro- 

 pean bison. Bos honasus, were both living in Germany 

 and Russia up to the time of the middle ages. A 

 herd of the European bison still survives in Lithuania 

 and is the property of the Emperor of Russia. The 

 Germans call this animal the " Wisent.^^ 



The aurochs [Bos taurus or primigenius) survived 

 in Germany till the sixteenth century, but was extinct 

 much earlier in England and Scotland. Skulls and 

 other remains of the aurochs are found in England 

 in the clays and brick earths, and also in the fens of 

 Cambridgeshire. But, Mr. Millais says, there is no 

 evidence to show that the aurochs or urus was 

 domesticated by man. 



The remains of two species of oxen. Bos frontosns 

 and Bos longifrons, are found abundantly in the 

 Thames alluvium and in the fens. The latter. 

 Bos longifrons, the Celtic shorthorn, is said to be 

 the ancestor of the small dark breeds of cattle found 

 in Scotland and Wales. The remains of Bos frontosus 

 indicate that it was a larger beast. 



