American Big Game in its Haunts 



shape of the horns themselves. There are also 

 differences in the relations of the nasal and premax- 

 illary bones, the development of the neural spines 

 of the vertebrae, and the hairy covering of the 

 body. 



In the genus Bos the horns are placed high up 

 on the vertex of the skull, which forms a marked 

 transverse ridge from which the hinder portion 

 falls sharply away. The horns are nearly circular 

 in section and almost smooth* usually they curve 

 outward, then upward and often inward at the tip ; 

 the premaxillaries are long and generally reach to 

 the nasals, and the anterior dorsal vertebrae are 

 without sharply elongated spines, so that the line 

 of the back is nearly straight. These, the true 

 oxen, as they are sometimes termed, now exist only 

 in domesticated breeds of cattle. 



In the gaur oxen (Bibos) the horns are situated 

 as in Bos, high up on the vertex, but are more ellip- 

 tical in section; the premaxillaries are short; the 

 dorsal vertebrae, from the third to the eleventh, 

 bear elongated spines which produce a hump reach- 

 ing nearly to the middle of the back; the tail is 

 shorter, and the hair is short all over the body. 

 The three species — gaur, gayal and banteng — in- 

 habit Indo-Malayan countries, and all of them are 

 dark brown with white stockings. 



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