of the Ox and its allied Species. 307 



number of the ribs, the occipital arch, and the inter-orbital dis- 

 tances of tbe forehead^ are dissimilar, but to a fossil species 

 (probably extinct in the living state), the bones of which occur 

 in various alluvial soils of Europe, and of which the dimen- 

 sions equal those of the great fossil buffalo discovered by Pal- 

 las in Siberia. No species of cattle has ever been found in a 

 truly wild condition in any part of South America. Neither 

 have their remains occurred on that continent, even in a 

 fossil state. In North America, on the contrary, on this side 

 of the Tropic of Cancer, two species occur, — the bison or 

 buffalo of the Anglo Americans, and the musk-ox (of the 

 Arctic Regions) which recent systematic writers have formed 

 into a separate genus, under the name of ovibos. The dis- 

 tinguishing characters of the American bison consist of its 

 possessing fifteen pair of ribs, and being comparatively much 

 feebler in the hinder than the anterior extremities — characters 

 of more essential importance in the distinction of species, 

 than the size and direction of the horns, or the texture and 

 colour of the external coat. As far, however, as the nature 

 of the hair is concerned, there exists a decided difference 

 between the aborigines of the New World, and the species 

 of Europe and Asia, viz. the coat of the former is woolly, 

 and their hides, like those of the musk-ox, are of a more 

 spongy nature than those of the aurochs and European oxen. 

 The American bison appears to inhabit from about the 40th 

 degree of north latitude to the vicinity of the polar circle, 

 beyond which its place is occupied by the musk oxen ( B. mos- 

 cliatus). 



The northern provinces of Asia produce neither the aurochs, 

 the buffalo, nor the bison, nor is there any proof that they 

 ever existed in these territories; for the fossil skulls which 

 are found there seem to belong to an extinct species, which, 

 in former times, inhabited both Europe and Asia. Its remains 

 are found with those of the fossil elephant and rhinoceros, 

 from which it may be inferred to have been not contempora- 

 neous with the other species, for, had it been otherwise, their 

 bones would have been found together. The skulls analogous, 

 but so superior in size, to those of our domestic breed, are, on 

 the contrary, contemporaneous with the actual conditions of 

 animal life, for they occur in soils or superficial strata, the 

 formation of which is going on at the present time. 



As some of the readers of this Journal may not l>e suffi- 

 ciently acquainted with the subjects of Natural History to 

 admit of their forming any very precise ideas in connexion 

 with the term6 or specilic appellations which we make use of, 

 we shall, before proceeding further, present an abridged view 

 of the synonyms, characters, and localities, of the principal 

 species of the genus Bos, chiefly in accordance with the latest 

 arrangement with which we are acquainted— that of Baron 



