360 .UNGULATA 



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

 has a coarser grain. The flesh of the bulls is highly 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 existing in North 

 America." The carcase of a Musk-Ox weighs, exclusive of fat, above 

 3 cwt. On this subject, Major Feilden l says : " The cause of the 

 disagreeable odour which frequently taints the flesh of these animals 

 has received no elucidation from my observations. It does not 

 appear to be confined to either sex, or to any particular season of 

 the year ; for a young unweaned animal, killed at its mother's side 

 and transferred within an hour to the stew-pans, Avas as rank and 

 objectionable as any. The flesh of some of these animals of which 

 I have partaken was dark, tender, and as well flavoured as that of 

 four-year old Southdown mutton." 



Remains of two fossil species of this genus (0. bombifrons and 

 0. camfrons) have been described from Pleistocene beds in the 

 United States, the one from Kentucky and the other from the 

 Arkansas River. Both (if indeed they be valid species) appear 

 closely allied to the living form. 



Bovine Section. Horns present and of nearly equal size in both 

 sexes ; in form rounded or angulated, placed on or near the vertex 

 of the skull, extending more or less outwards, and curving upwards 

 near the extremities ; external surface comparatively smooth and 

 never marked by prominent transverse ridges or knobs. Muzzle 

 broad, with large naked muffle ; nostrils lateral ; no suborbital 

 gland. Skull without any trace of lachrymal fossa or fissure. Tail 

 long and cylindrical ; generally tufted at the extremity, rarely 

 hairy throughout. Males usually with a dew-lap on the throat. No 

 foot-glands. Molar teeth extremely hypsodont ; those of the upper 

 jaw with a nearly square cross-section, and a large accessory inner 

 column. 



The section is abundantly represented in the Palsearctic, 

 Oriental, and Ethiopian regions, with one Nearctic species and an 

 outlying and aberrant species in Celebes. 



Eos. 2 The whole of the species of Oxen were included by 

 Linnaeus in the single genus Bos, and although the species have 

 been distributed by modern zoologists in several genera such as 

 Anoa, Bubalus, Bison, Poephagus, Bihos, and Bos the characters by 

 which they are separated are so slight that it seems, on the whole, 

 preferable to retain the old genus in its original wide sense. Using 

 then the term Bos in this sense, it will include all the representatives 

 of the section about a dozen in number and may be divided 

 into several groups. 



1 Zoologist, September 1877. 

 2 Linn. Syst. Nat. 12th ed. vol. i. p. 98 (1766). 



