280 On a fossil Ox from the Mississippi. 



have, however, found their way into our collections. Dr. 

 Wistar* has described and figured one of these bovine skulls, 

 and shown its total dissimilarity to that of the bison. 



Dr. Harlan, f considering it justly as a new species, has 

 named it the Bos bombifrons. The horns are curved, but at the 

 same time rounded, like most others of this genus. J 



The same gentleman has also described another fossil head 

 from the same locality, which is preserved in the Museum of 

 the American Philosophical Society. It comprises part of 

 the skull, with the core of one horn attached. The horn 

 arises two inches before the line formed by the union of the 

 facial and occipital surfaces ; it is round, and twenty-eight 

 inches in circumference at its base. He thinks it sufficiently 

 characterised to rank as a distinct species, and proposes for 

 it the name of Bos latifrons, or broad-headed ox. 



Of those which have curved, flattened horns, but two living 

 species are at present known to naturalists. They inhabit 

 opposite regions of the globe. One, the Bos caffer, with two 

 enormous protuberances on its front, from the southern ex- 

 tremity of the old world ; the other, the Bos moschatus, or 

 musk ox, from the northern extremity of the new. 



The differences between our specimen and the Bos caffer, 

 are too obvious to be insisted on ; we need only allude to the 

 fact, that although this species has flattened horns, their bases, 



* Transactions, Am. Phil. Soc. 



f Fauna Americana, p. 271. 



J In a pamphlet published in 1 806, explanatory of a collection of fossil 

 bones from America, at that time exhibited at Liverpool as curiosities, the 

 author speaks in general terms of a horn, as appertaining to some huge 

 animal of the ox kind. His account is so loosely worded, that it is im- 

 possible to ascertain whether it is to the horn of this species he alludes, 

 when he says : — " The defense is better than six feet, not running in a 

 spiral volute, but rising nearly perpendicular, and turning off at the point.'' 

 This collection is now, we believe, in the Museum of the College of Sur- 

 geons, London. 





