500 Miscellaneous. 



figures this pair of horns (t. viii. f. 3), which is evidently that of a 

 very young animal, and thinks it belongs to the dwarf ox, p. 9 ; but 

 in the * History of Quadrupeds,' p. 28, under the Cape ox, he ob- 

 serves, " The horns (t. iii. f. 9) of my former edition, which I attri- 

 buted to the next species (the dwarf ox) most probably are those 

 of the young of this kind ; " this account is repeated and the 

 figure left out in the 3rd edition of the * History,' p. 33 ; so that 

 we have Pennant's own authority for saying that these horns were 

 not those of his dwarf ox, on which the name Bos pumilus of 

 Turton was founded, and therefore that the change of name made 

 by Sir V. Brooke, like many other of his synonyma, is entirely 

 founded on a mistake, or, in fact, on the want of sufficient research. 

 The pair of horns in Grew is in the British Museum, is figured in 

 our ' Catalogue of Ruminants,' was described by Blyth under the 

 name of Bubalus reclinis ; and I believe that we have no authority 

 for their being considered the young of Bos brachyceros, or at least 

 that Sir V. Brooke has as yet shown no reason for regarding Bos 

 reclinis and B. planiceros, Blyth, as the young of Bos brachyceros, 

 and therefore that the first of the two conclusions that Sir Victor 

 Brooke arrives at, viz. " the identity of pumilus of Turton with 

 brachyceros, Gray," is entirely erroneous ; and as to the second, we 

 have no means of knowing, not having specimens to refer to. 



I make these remarks because compilers will be misled by the 

 apparent care and speciality with which the synonyms are quoted ; 

 and it is to be observed that synonyms so compiled are very apt to 

 mislead, and thus be injurious to the progress of science. 



To show the little reliance that can be placed on Sir Victor Brooke's 

 statement of his pretended history of the dwarf ox (in the Proc. Zool. 

 Soc. 1873, p. 476), I may observe: — First, he states that Pennant's 

 dwarf bull was established on the horns in the Museum of the 

 Boyal Society, whereas it was entirely founded on Belon's account 

 of the " petit boeuf d'Afrique " from Morocco. Pennant, in his 

 ' Synopsis,' p. 9, thinks that the horns mentioned by Grew might 

 belong to it ; but in his ' History,' published ten years afterwards, 

 he says they are "most probably those of a young Cape ox," observ- 

 ing that " Grew improperly thinks them the horns of the common 

 buffalo " (p. 28). Secondly, he states that Turton gives the name of 

 B. pumilus to " the same " (that is Grew's) specimen. Turton 

 merely gives an abridgment of Pennant's account of the dwarf ox 

 from Belon, and makes no reference to the horns described by Grew, 

 nor even to the figure of them. This is a very fair specimen of the 

 accuracy of Sir Victor Brooke's observations and conclusions there- 

 from. I can scarcely allow it to pass without a protest against his re- 

 mark, " the very slight interest which Dr. Baikie aj>pears to have taken 

 in natural history " (p. 478), because his specimens in the Museum 

 are without special habitats. All who knew Dr. Baikie, and any body 

 who has seen his numerous specimens in the British Museum, must 

 feel the falseness of this accusation. Dr. Baikie died on the Niger, 

 a sacrifice to his scientific zeal ; and his specimens were received in 

 the Museum some time after his death, after they had passed through 

 two hands at least, and their history was lost. 



