(29 



BOVID.E. 



BOVID^E. 



lower jaw, hangs down like a beard and dewlap. The short tail is 

 concealed by the fur of the hips. There is a large quantity of fine 

 brownish ash-coloured wool or down among the hair covering the 

 body. The hair on the legs is short, dull brownish-white, unmixed 

 with wool. The hoofs are longer than those of the Caribou, but so 

 similar in form that it requires the eye of a practised hunter to 

 distinguish the impressions. In the cow, which is smaller than the 

 bull, the horns are smaller, and their bases, instead of touching, are 

 separated by a hairy space. The hair on the throat and chest is also 

 (shorter. 



This is the Bceuf Musqu<$ of Jeremie ; Musk-Ox of Drage, Dobbs, 

 Ellis, Pennant, Hearne, and Parry ; 03 moschatus of Gmelin, Sabiue, 

 and Hichardson (Parry's ' Second Voyage ') ; Mateeh Moostoos (Ugly 

 Bison) of the Cree Indians ; Adgiddah-yawseh (Little Bison) of the 

 Chepewyans and Copper Indians ; and Oomingmak of the Esquimaux. 



The Barren Lauds of America lying to the northward of the 60th 

 parallel are the principal habitations of the Musk-Ox. Tracks were 

 once seen by Hearue within a few miles of Fort Churchill, in lat. 59 ; 

 and he saw many in his first northern journey, in about lat. 61. 

 Richardson was informed that they do not now come so far to the 

 southward even on the Hudson's Bay shore ; and he adds that farther 

 to the westward they are rarely seen in any numbers lower than 

 lat. 67, although, from portions of their skulls and horns which are 

 occasionally found near the northern borders of the Great Slave Lake, 

 he thinks it probable that they ranged at no very distant period over 

 the whole country lying between that great sheet of water and the 

 Polar Sea. He had not heard of their having been seen on the banks 

 of Mackenzie's River to the southward of Great Bear Lake, and he 

 states that they do not come to the south-western end of that lake, 

 although they existed in numbers on its north-eastern arm. " They 

 range," continues he, " over the islands which lie to the north of the 

 American continent, so far as Melville Island, in lat. 75, but they do 

 not, like the rein-deer, extend to Greenland, Spitsbergen, or Lapland. 

 From Indian information we learn that to the westward of the Rocky 

 Mountains which skirt the Mackenzie there is an extensive tract of 

 barren country, which is also inhabited by the musk-ox and rein-deer. 

 It is to the Russian traders that we must look for information on this 

 head ; but it is probable that, owing to the greater mildness of the 

 climate to the westward of the Rocky Mountains, the musk-ox, which 

 affects a cold barren district, where grass is replaced by lichens, does 

 not range so far to the southward on the Pacific coast as it does on 

 the shores of Hudson's Bay. It is not known in New Caledonia nor 

 on the banks of the Columbia, nor is it found on the Rocky Mountain 

 ridge at the usual crossing places near the sources of the Peace, Elk, 

 and Saskatchewan rivers. It is therefore fair to conclude that the 

 animal described by Fathers Marco de Nica and Gomara as an 

 inhabitant of Xew Mexico, and which Pennant refers to the musk-ox, 

 is of a different species. The musk-ox has not crossed over to the 

 Asiatic shore, and does not exist in Siberia, although fossil skulls 

 have been found there of a species nearly allied, which has been 

 enumerated in systematic works under the name of Oviboi Pallantit. 

 The appearance of musk-oxen on Melville Island in the month of May, 

 as ascertained on Captain Parry's first voyage, is interesting, not 

 merely as a part of their natural history, but as giving us reason to 

 infer that a chain of islands lies between Melville Island and Cape 

 Lyon, or that Wollaston and Banks' Lands form one great island, 

 ovrr which the migrations of the animals must have been performed. 

 The districts inhabited by the musk-ox are the proper lands of the 

 Ki<|iiimaux ; and neither the northern Indians nor the Crees have 

 an original name for it, both terming it Bison with an additional 

 i'1'ithet." 



Sir. John Richardson, who had the best opportunities of coming at 

 the truth, informs us that the country frequented by the Musk-Ox is 

 mostly rocky, and destitute of wood, except on the banks of the larger 

 rivers, which are more or less thickly clothed with spruce-trees. 

 Their food, he tells us, is similar to that of the Caribou, grass at one 

 season and lichens at another ; and the contents of its paunch are 

 eaten by the natives with the same relish as that with which they 

 devour the ' nerrooks' of the Caribou. The dung is voided in round 

 pellet*, which are larger than those which come from the Caribou. 

 Tin' .'tiiimal runs fast, short as are its legs, and hills and rocks are easily 

 climW by this ox of the northern deserts. One pursued by Richard- 

 son's party on the banks of the Coppermine River scaled a lofty sand- 

 cliff with so great a declivity that they were obliged to crawl on hands 

 and knees to follow the chase. The musk-oxen assemble in herds of 

 from twenty to thirty, are in their rut about the end of August and 

 beginning of September, and bring forth one calf about the latter end 

 of May or beginning of June. Hearne accounts for the few bulls 

 which are seen by supposing that they kill each other in their contests 

 for the cows. 



Richardson thus graphically describes the terror of a huddled herd : 



-" If the hunters keep themselves concealed when they fire upon a 

 herd of musk-oxen, the poor animals mistake the noise for thunder, 

 mid, forming themselves into a group, crowd nearer and nearer 

 together as their companions fall around them ; but should they 

 ir enemies by sight, or by their sense of smell, which is 

 very acute, the whole herd seek for safety by instant flight. The bulls 

 however are very irascible, and particularly when wounded, will often 



attack the hunter, and endanger his life unless he possesses both 

 activity and presence of mind. The Esquimaux, who are well accus- 

 tomed to the pursuit of this animal, sometimes turn its irritable 

 disposition to good account ; for an expert hunter having provoked a 

 bull to attack him, wheels round it more quickly than it can turn, and 

 by repeated stabs in the belly puts an end to its life." 



Mr. Jeremie, who first brought the animal into notice, carried some 

 of its wool to France, where some stockings were made of it, said to 

 have been equal to the finest silk. Sir John Richardson says that this 

 wool resembles that of the Bison, but is perhaps finer, and would in 

 his opinion be highly useful in the arts, if it could be procured in 

 sufficient quantity. The same author informs us that when the animal 

 is fat its flesh is well tasted, and resembles that of the Caribou, but 

 has a coarser grain. The flesh of the bulls is high flavoured, and 

 both bulls and cows when lean smell strongly of musk, their flesh at 

 the same time being very dark and tough, and certainly far inferior to 

 that of any other ruminating animal in North America. The carcass 

 of a Musk-Ox weighs, exclusive of the offal, about three hundred- 

 weight, or nearly three times as much as a Barren-Ground Caribou, 

 and twice as much as one of the Woodland Caribou. (Richardson, 

 ' Fauna Borealia-Americana.') 



Biulorcat. Muzzle hairy, with a small naked muffle only edging 

 the nostrils ; ears narrow, pointed. The fur consists of short, harsh, 

 adpressed hair ; the tail is short, very depressed, and hairy, like the 

 tail of a goat ; the head is large and heavy ; the lips taper, and are clad 

 with hair like sheep ; the horns are round, smooth, lunate ; they are 

 nearly in contact on the top of the head ; their direction is vertically 

 upward, then horizontally outward, or to the sides, and then almost as 

 horizontally backward ; the limbs short and straight ; the hoofs broad. 

 The only species of this genus is the B. taxicola, the Takin. It istlio 

 Nemorhaditi of Turner. It is an inhabitant of the Eastern Himalaya. 

 It is called Takiu by the Mishmis, and Ken by the Khamtis. There 

 has been some difference of opinion as to the proper position of this 

 animal, but we have followed Dr. J. E. Gray in placing it amongst 

 the Bovece. 



Fossil Borea. 



Remains of oxen and deer occur abundantly in the Tertiary Beds, 

 with extinct species of exieting genera of Pachydtrmata, such as the 

 elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, and horse, the extinct genus 

 Mattodon, and large Carnirora, as the tiger, hytcua, and bear. 



The most interesting of these is the /Jos pritnigeniut. 



Mr. Woods, in a paper on some fossil bones found in Wiltshire, says, 

 " It has occasioned some speculation among zoologists to appropriate 

 to the large herbivorous animals, of which these skulls and scattered 

 bones are now the only vestiges, their proper place in the system of 

 nature. Cuvier however has fixed their characters, and has declared 

 them to resemble the skulls of the present oxen so closely, that there 

 can be little doubt of their having belonged to the stock from which 

 the latter have all proceeded ; these having however degenerated in 

 size, and varied from them and from each other in minor points, owing 

 to differences in climate, food, and other causes depending upon 

 domestication, their magnitude is at least one-third greater than that 

 of the largest breed of modern oxen, and their horns arc much more 

 massive." 



We have seen that Professor Owen is of opinion that the Bot primi- 

 gcniut is a distinct species from the Common Ox. That it is distinct 

 fmm the Bison or Aurochs was pointed out by Bojanus, at the same 

 time we have abundant evidence that it existed in Great Britain with 

 the Aurochs, with the bones of which its remains are found constantly 

 associated. " The characters of Bos primiyenius," says Professor 

 Owen, " as contrasted with the Bison priscu*, may be advantageously 

 studied in the magnificent specimen of an entire skull, from near 

 Athol in Perthshire, now in the British Museum. The concave fore- 

 head, with its slight median longitudinal ridge ; the origin of the 

 horns at the extremities of the sharp ridge which divides the front.il 

 from the occipital regions; the acute angle at which these two 

 surfaces of the cranium meet to form the above ridge, all identify 

 this specimen with the Bos primiyenius described by Cuvier, Bojimus, 

 and Fremery. The cores of the horns bend at first slightly backward 

 and upward, then downward and forward, and finally inward and 

 upward, describing a graceful double curvature ; they are tuberculate 

 at the base, moderately impressed by longitudinal grooves, and 

 irregularly perforated. The skull is one yard in length, and the span 

 of the horn-cores is 3 feet 6 inches ; but other British specimens of 

 the Bos primiyeniui have shown superior dimensions of the bony 

 supports of the horns. The breadth of the forehead between the 

 horns i 104 inches; from the middle of the occipital ridge to the back 

 part of the orbit it measures 13 inches ; the length of the series of the 

 upper molar teeth is 64 inches, the breadth of the occipital condyles 

 is 6 inches." 



The difference between the S. primigeniui and the domestic ox is 

 seen most in its diminutive size and the comparative shortness as well 

 as fineness of its horns. Specimens of B. primigentus have been found 

 by Mr. John Brown in the London Clay ofClacton, on the Essex coast, 

 by Mr. H. Woods in'the bed of the Avon, by Mr. Wicklwm Flower in 

 the London Clay of Herne Bay, and in many other places. 



In addition to this species Professor Owen describes another fossil 

 species which he has named B. longifrons. The first known specimen 



