ON BRITISH FOSSIL MAMMALIA. 235 
adverted to, in the hope that some fortunate ulterior discovery may determine 
whether they belong to a species of Aurochs ( Urus), or of Ox (Bos), or some 
other subgenus of a Bovine family. 
The character in question is an unusual prominence of the inner border of 
the anterior groove for the extensor tendon which traversed the middle of that 
surface of the metatarsal bone, bending the groove obliquely outward; it is 
well shown in a large fossil metatarsal bone, heavily impregnated with iron, 
from the freshwater formation at Clacton, Essex, and now in the collection of 
Mr. Brown. I should perhaps have regarded this production of a ridge 
of bone as due to ossific inflammation, had not two fossil metatarsal bones 
of a smaller Bovine animal, from the cavernous fissures at Oreston, presented 
the same character. Both these metatarsals and the larger one from Clacton 
present more slender proportions than those of the Bos primigenius, and in 
the same degree approach the genus Urus. 
Bos longifrons. 
This species belongs to the subgenus Bos, by the form of the forehead and 
the origin of the horns from the extremities of the upper occipital ridge, but 
is distinguished from the Bos primigenius by its much smaller size, its much 
shorter horns in proportion to its size, and by its longer and narrower fore- 
head. The horns have a simple curvature forward, and a little downward. 
Remains of this species were first described by Robert Ball, Esq., Secretary 
to the Zoological Society of Dublin, in the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Aca- 
demy for January 1839, as indicating “a variety or race differing very re- 
markably from any previously described in works with which the author was 
acquainted.” They consisted principally of parts of the skull with the horn- 
cores, which had been found at considerable depths in bogs in Westmeath, 
Tyrone and Longford. 
One of the specimens from Westmeath gives the following admeasure- 
ments :— In. Lines. 
Length from the supra-occipital ridge to the nasal bones.... 8 0 
Breadth of the skull between the roots of the horns ...... 5 5 
Breadth of the skull across the middle of the orbits........ 6 5 
Circumference of base of horn-core ............ Tare sweats 4 3 
Length following outer curvature .......... 00200000005 36 
In the Hunterian collection there is a frontlet and horn-core of the same 
species likewise obtained “ from a bog in Ireland.” Had no other localities 
for the Bos longifrons been known, it might have been held to be of later 
date than the Bos primigenius and Urus priseus, of whose existence as the 
contemporaries of the Mammoth and tichorhine Rhinoceros we have the 
most satisfactory evidence; I have however been so fortunate as to ascertain, 
in the survey of the collections of Mammalian Fossils in the Eastern Counties, 
indubitable specimens of the Bos longifrons from freshwater deposits, which 
are rich in the remains of Hlephas and Rhinoceros. 
A specimen of the back part of the cranium and horn-cores in the collec- 
tion of Mr. Brown of Stanway, obtained by that gentleman from the fresh- 
water deposits at Clacton on the Essex coast, gives the admeasurement from 
the supra-occipital ridge to the upper margin of the foramen magnum, which 
is 3 inches 9 lines; the breadth of the skull between the roots of the horns 
is 5 inches. 
A fossil frontlet and horn-cores of the Bos longifrons, from a similar fresh- 
water of the newer pliocene period, at Walton, presents the same characters 
as the specimens from below the Irish bogs, and it is interesting to find that 
remains of the gigantic Deer (Megaceros) are associated with the Bos longi- 
frons in the English freshwater deposits, as in the under-bog marls in Ireland. 
