THE AMERICAN BISON 



183 



ance. The banteng is smaller than either the gaur or the 

 gayal, and is found in Burmah, Java, Bali, and Lombok. 

 The true oxen are represented by two species. One of 

 these consists of those handsome beasts, the humped 

 cattle of India. The other includes the domestic oxen 

 of Europe and America, together with the herds of wild 

 cattle which are still preserved at Chillingham and some 

 other British parks. Wild oxen were abundant in 



FIG. 47. 



THE MUSK OX. 



European forests in the days of Julius Caesar, who gave 

 them the name of the urus, and described them as 

 equalling the auroch in size. 



All the species yet noticed may be spoken of as bovine 

 animals or " oxen," in the widest sense of the term. 

 Between them and the goats and sheep, or caprine 

 creatures, stands an intermediate form known as the 

 musk ox. This is of about the size of a small Welsh or 

 Scotch ox, and covered with thick, brown, matted, and 

 curly hair. It goes in herds of from twenty to eighty 

 and a hundred individuals, among which only two or 



