382 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 195 7 



HOW IT GOT ITS NAME 



Although it is not a true ox, the peculiar buffalo-like appearance 

 of the musk ox prompted the name "ox," and the prefix "musk" had 

 its origin in the characteristic musky odor of this animal. The 

 Eskimos call it the oo-ming-mack; the Chipewyan Indians, et-jer-ray. 

 Most species of mammals are known by various names, but "musk 

 ox" is its universal name known to white men, though in olden times 

 it was sometimes called the musk bison or musk buffalo. Even in 

 other languages than our own the term musk ox can be literally 

 translated. For example, in French, the name is le boeuf musque. 



One might well surmise that any animal adapted to such uninhabited 

 regions as the arctic barrens would be safe from human molestation. 

 To enter the domain of the musk ox, one must take a journey by plane, 

 or by ship amidst arctic ice fields, or else travel by canoe and foot 

 through many miles of Canadian wilderness. Parching winds, cold, 

 and possibly hunger may greet the hunter. Often, miles of search 

 are necessary to locate a herd of musk oxen, for even in an area known 

 to be inhabited by them they live in small scattered groups that shift 

 their range in following the changing food supply. This gregarious 

 habit, this tendency to gather in herds, is a marked instinct in the 

 musk ox, though the groups are usually small ones of from 10 to 30 

 or 40 individuals, quite in contrast to the huge herds of bison that 

 formerly contained thousands in a gathering. Search for food may 

 induce musk oxen to wander many miles, but there is no regular sea- 

 sonal movement, or migration, such as is likely to occur in a species 

 that congregates in immense herds or flocks. 



FOOD HABITS 



Grass is the principal food of the musk ox, though it frequently 

 eats willow browse, small flowering plants, and particularly in summer, 

 the tender shoots of the dwarfed shrubs of its homeland. It is sup- 

 posed not to like lichens or mosses, but a Mr. Hoare, in an old report 

 for the Canadian Government, says : 



The plain on which these musk oxen had been feeding was windswept and only 

 about two inches of snow lay on it so the top of the vegetation was plainly visible. 

 It was evident that the musk oxen had been feeding on several varieties of moss 

 and lichens which the barren land caribou commonly use as winter food. . . . On 

 one side of the moss-covered plain was a gentle slope on which bunch grass 

 could be seen sticking up through the snow. Up this slope the musk oxen had 

 evidently passed, without cropping any of the grass, to the mossy ground above. 

 There was also a thick growth of coarse hay a short distance away on the 

 opposite bank of the river. Grass, willow tips, and flowering plants were quite 

 accessible in the district had the musk oxen preferred these sorts of fodder. 



In the winter, herbs and all vegetation of the Barren Grounds are 

 often covered with snow. It is then that the powerful hoofs of the 



