MUSK-OX. 



43 



came the pair of specimens presented by Mr. St. G. Littledale, and 

 to the forest of Bialowicza in Lithuania, where it is protected by 

 the Emperor of Russia, the donor of the fine Bull exhibited sepa- 

 rately. The American Bison, erroneously called Buffalo (B. ameri- 

 canus), which, except where protected, is now practically extinct, 

 but which used to wander in innumerable herds over the prairies 

 of North America, forming the chief means of subsistence to tribes 

 of Indians, equally doomed to speedy extinction. Finally, the Wild 

 Ox of Central Asia, the Yak (Bos grunniens), partly reclaimed and 

 domesticated in Tibet and Mongolia. 



The Musk- Ox (Ovibos moschatus) is represented by a remark- 

 ably fine series in Cases 57-60, for which we are indebted to the 

 various British Arctic Expeditions. It is covered all over with very 



Fig. 16. 



The Musk-Ox. (Discovery Bay ; Voyage of H.M.S. ' Alert/) 



long hair, often nearly two feet in length, and with a thick woolly 

 under-fur. It inhabits the Polar regions of the Western Hemi- 

 sphere, between the 60th and 83rd parallels of latitude, and is 

 found in herds of from 10 to 30. It is surprising that so large an 

 animal should be able to subsist during the long Arctic winter on 

 the scanty vegetation of those regions. When fat its flesh is 

 well -flavoured, but lean animals smell strongly of musk. Notwith- 

 standing the shortness of its legs, the Musk-Ox runs fast, and 



[Cases 

 57-GO.j 



