752 



THE UNGULATES. OR HOOFED MAMMALS 



THE AUROCHS AND DOMESTIC OXEN (Bos taurus] 



The aurochs, or ancient wild ox of Europe, although now quite extinct as a 

 wild species, is doubtless still represented by the half -wild cattle of some of the 

 British parks; although the confined areas in which they live have caused them to de- 

 generate sadly in size from their wild ancestors. Moreover, although there may have 

 been a certain amount of crossing with other species, the origin of our domestic 

 cattle is certainly to be traced back to the same wild ancestor. + 



The aurochs and the half-wild and domesticated cattle of Europe are character- 

 ized by their horns being circular in section and placed at the very summit of the skull 

 immediately over the occiput, as shown in the accompanying woodcut. Where they 

 first arise from the skull the horns have their upper border convex ; and the forehead of 

 the skull is flat or slightly concave, and much longer than broad, so that the sockets 



of the eyes are separated 

 by a long interval from 

 the bases of the horns. 

 The tail is of great length. 

 The spines of the verte- 

 brae of the withers are not 

 greatly elongated, and thus 

 do not form a distinct 

 ridge in this region of the 

 body. 



That the wild aurochs 

 was an animal of huge 

 bulk is proved by the 

 skulls and bones found in 

 the turbaries, fens, and 

 brick earths of England 

 and the continent. In the skull figured in the woodcut the bony cores of the horn 

 have a span of upward of forty-two inches from tip to tip, and when these were 

 covered with their horny sheaths the whole could not have fallen short of fifty 

 inches. This specimen was obtained from a turbary *- that is a peat bog- near 

 Athol; but some of the skulls found in the brick earths at Ilford in Essex, are 

 of considerably larger dimensions, although from the more forward direction of 

 their horns the span between their tips is somewhat less. 



Distributi nand ^ e aurochs was pursued and killed by the prehistoric hunters 

 Extinction f Europe, as we know from the circumstance that skulls have been 

 found with the forehead pierced by flint hatchets. The date from 

 which it disappeared from Britain is, however, uncertain, although it probably lin- 

 gered longer in a wild state in Scotland than in the southern districts of England. 

 On the continent there is evidence that in Julius Caesar's time the aurochs, or urus, 

 was abundant in the Hercynian, or Black, Forest of Germany. Old chronicles also 

 prove that in the middle of the sixth century these animals were found, although 

 rarely, in the province of Maine; while there is evidence that some of them at least 



SKUI,!, OF THE AUROCHS. 



(About one-tenth natural size.) 

 ( After Owen. ) 



