April 13, 1893] 



NATURE 



559 



THE MUSK-OX. 



THE Zoological Society of London [being anxious to 

 obtain living specimens of the musk-ox iOvibos 

 iiiosc/uitus), well known as one of the characteristic in- 

 habitants of Arctic regions, the Council of the Society 

 have determined to offer the sum of five hundred pounds 

 for five examples of this animal (two males and three 

 females) delivered alive and in good condition in the 

 Regent's Park Gardens, or a proportionate sum for a 

 smaller number. It has been pointed out by Col. 

 Feilden, in an article upon "Animal Life in East Green- 

 land," published in T/te Zoologist for February last, that 

 the southern range of the musk-ox, which was formerly 

 supposed to be met with only in Arctic America, has 

 now been satisfactorily shown to extend as far south on 

 the east coast of Greenland as midway between the 

 parallels of 70" and 71° N.L., and that it will in all 

 probability be found in the future to extend along the coast 

 line of Egede Land as far as the sixty-fifth parallel. 

 Thus the abode of the musk-ox is brought comparatively 

 close to Europe, and there seems to be no insuperable 

 difficulty in procuring living specimens. Young musk- 

 oxen are very easily reared and tamed, and there could 

 not be any very great difficulty in catching either old or 

 young in Jameson's Land. 



Although the more southern portion of the coast of 

 East Greenland is shut off from access by an almost im- 

 penetrable ice barrier, it has been ascertained of late 

 years that the more northern portion of this coast may 



Musk-ox (from Flower and Lydekker's " Introduction to the Study 

 of Mammals," p. 358). 



be reached with comparatively little difficulty. In 1889 

 Captain Knudsen, of the Norwegian sealer Hekla,\AndtA 

 on Clavering Island in 74' 10' N.L., and found musk-oxen 

 in considerable numbers. Again, during the recent 

 Danish East Greenland Expedition of 1891-92, Lieut. 

 Ryder managed to land on Jameson's Land in Scoresby's 

 Sound, although the year was very unfavourable, and 

 passed the winter there with great success, no sickness 

 having occurred amongst the members of the expedition 

 during all the time they were there. 



Animal life, Lieut. Ryder tells us, is rich, especially in 

 Jameson's Land, where reindeer are seen in wonderful 

 numbers. Many musk-oxen were seen around Hurry's 

 Inlet, and traces of foxes, hares, bears, ermines, and 

 lemmings were observed in Jameson's Land. The richness 

 of vegetation (150 flowering plants having been gathered 

 in Scoresby's Sound) and the size attained by it, espe- 

 cially around the western basin, are most astonishing, 

 especially in comparison with what is the case on the 

 western coast of Greenland. 



It is, therefore, evident that it is quite possible for the 

 well-equipped Arctic navigator to land on this part of the 

 east coast of Greenland in almost any ordinary year, and 

 that he will find there an abundant supply of both animal 

 and vegetable life. In the former category are the musk- 

 oxen, the young of which, as already stated, are easily 

 captured and reared. When they are once placed on 

 board ship there would appear to be no great difficulty in 

 bringing them safe to England. 



We subjoin the description of the musk-ox given in 

 Flower and Lydekker's " Introduction to the Study of 

 Mammals," the publishers of which (Messrs. Black) 

 have kindly allowed us the use of the accompanying 

 illustration. 



The animal commonly known as the musk-ox {Ovihos 

 moschatus), though approaching in size the smaller 

 varieties of oxen, is in structure and habits closely allied 

 to the sheep, its affinities being well expressed by the 

 generic name Ovibos bestowed upon it by De Blainville. 

 The specific name, as also the common English appella- 

 tives, ''Musk-Ox," " Musk- Buffalo," or "Musk-Sheep," 

 applied to it by various authors, refer to the musky odour 

 which the animal exhales. This does not appear to be 

 due to the secretion of a special gland, as in the case of 

 the musk-deer ; but it must be observed that, except as 

 regards the osteology, very little is known of the anatomy 

 of this species. It about equals in si^e the small Welsh 

 and Scotch cattle. The head is large and broad. The 

 horns in the old males have extremely broad bases, meet- 

 ing in the median line, and covering the brow and whole 

 crown of the head. They are directed at first downwards 

 by the side of the face, and then turn upwards 

 and forwards, ending in the same plane as the eye. Their 

 basal halves are of a dull white colour, oval in section and 

 coarsely fibrous ; their middle part smooth, shining, and 

 round ; their tips black. In the females and young males 

 the horns are smaller, and their bases are separated from 

 each other by a space in the middle of the forehead. The 

 ears are small, erect, and pointed, and nearly concealed 

 in the hair. The space between the nostrils and the 

 upper lip is covered with close hair, as in sheep and 

 goats, without any trace of the bare muffle of the oxen. 

 The greater part of the animal is covered with long brown 

 hair, thick, matted, and curly on the shoulders, so as to 

 give the appearance of a hump, but elsewhere straight 

 and hanging down ; that of the sides, back, and haunches 

 reaching as far as the middle of the legs and entirely 

 concealing the very short tail. There is also a thick 

 woolly underfur, shed in the summer. The hair on the 

 lower jaw, throat, and chest, is long and straight, and 

 hangs down like a beard or dewlap, though there is no 

 loose fold of skin in this situation as in oxen. The limbs 

 are stout and short, terminating in unsymmetrical hoofs, 

 the external one being rounded, the internal pointed, and 

 the sole partially covered with hair. 



It is gregarious in habit, assembling in herds of twenty 

 or thirty head, or, according to Hearne, sometimes eighty 

 or a hundred, in which there are seldom more than two 

 or three full grown males. The musk-ox runs with con- 

 siderable speed, notwithstanding the shortness of its legs. 

 Major H. W. Feilden, Naturalist to the Arctic Expedition 

 of 1875, says :— " No person watching this animal in a 

 state of nature could fail to see how essentially ovine are 

 its actions. When alarmed they gather together like a 

 flock of sheep herded by a collie dog, and the way in 

 which they pack closely together and follow blindly the 

 vacillating leadership of the old ram is unquestionably 

 sheep-like. When thoroughly frightened they take to the 

 hills, ascending precipitous slopes and scaling rocks with 

 great agility." They feed chiefly on grass, but also on 

 moss, lichens, and tender shoots of the willow and pine. 

 The female brings forth a single young one in the end of 

 May or beginning of June, after a gestation of nine 

 months. 



NO. 122^, VOL. 47] 



