Greenland Musk-Ox 321 



of an ox or a sheep, the hocks being turned outwards in an altogether 

 peculiar and distinctive manner. If this strange gait be also characteristic 

 of the adult, it is probably adapted for progression on glacier and other ice- 

 coated surfaces ; hrmness of foothold being secured bv the hair which 

 grows on the under surface of the toot. 



Some degree of confusion has arisen with regard to the age ot the 

 calves at Woburn Abbey, which, as already said, were captured on 

 Clavering Island on i6th August 1899. From the tact that a very young 

 calf captured at Port Conger on i8th May of the same year has a 

 black tace. Dr. Allen ^ has stated that the mu.-k-oxen at Woburn Abbey 

 when figured in 1 899 (Fig. 69, p. 3 i 5) must have been yearlings, " and hence 

 not in the lirst pelage, in which there is no indication of the future white 

 face-spot." 



But a photograph of the Woburn specimens taken when on board 

 ship shows that they were then evidentlv very young animals, although 

 with white foreheads. And when they reached Woburn Abbey they 

 had all the manners and appearance of very young animals, while they 

 were but little superior in size to a large retriever. Hence it seems 

 clear that thev were calves of that year (1899), having been born the 

 previous April or Mav. It would accordingly appear, if the newly- 

 born calves always have black faces, that the Clavering Island specimens 

 had already changed their coats when they were shipped. And, in 

 view of the earlv date at which many ruminants assume their winter 

 dress, there is nothing intrinsically unlikely in such a change having 

 taken place. 



When the photograph of the survivor of the pair given on page 317 was 

 taken, the horns had only just begun to bud ; and the skull of the one that 

 died (which was presented, together with the skin, by the Duke of Bedford 

 to the British Museum) shows that the budding horn-cores project directly 



' op. fit. p. 79, note. 

 2 T 



