

MUSK-OXEN IN ENGLAND 



SOME persons are unfortunate in their names, and the 

 same is the case with certain animals. The ruminant 

 popularly known as the musk-ox and scientifically as 

 Ovibos moschatus is an instance of this, for although no 

 objection can be taken to the prefix " musk," and its Latin 

 eqivalent moschatus, yet the English title "ox" is in the 

 highest degree misleading, while the technical " Ovibos," 

 which suggests characters intermediate between the oxen 

 and the sheep, is equally unsatisfactory. To say that the 

 creature is an animal sui generis would be a truism, seeing 

 that it is the sole existing representative of the genus 

 Ovibos ; and yet this expression, perhaps, best conveys 

 the real state of the case namely, that it is a more or 

 less isolated member of the ruminant group, coming under 

 the designation neither of an ox nor a sheep, nor yet 

 being a connecting link between the two. Under these 

 circumstances it would be much better if the name 

 " musk-ox " could be dropped altogether, and (unless it 

 be altogether unpronounceable) its native Greenland equi- 

 valent adopted instead. Unfortunately, however, I have 

 hitherto been unable to ascertain by what name the creature 

 is known to the Greenlanders. 



Although now restricted to Greenland and Arctic America 

 eastward of the Mackenzie River, the musk-ox was formerly 

 a circumpolar animal, its remains being occasionally met 



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