138 



KNOWLEDGE 



[June 1, 1900. 



tative of the species appears to liave been brought to 

 our islands till the autumn of last year, when a couple 

 of young bulls were added to the collection of the Duke 

 of Bedford at Woburn Abbey. These wore captured in 

 August last in Claveriug Island, situated off the coast 

 of Ea-st Greenland, opposite Kouig Wilhelm Land, in 

 about latitude, 74.5° N. When they arrived they were 

 about the size of a rather large sheep, but by March of 

 the present year (when the photograph here reproduced 

 was taken) the solitary survivor had increased con- 

 siderably in size, although the horns are only just be- 

 coming visible above the long hair of the sides of the 

 forehead. 



Prob:iblv most of mv readers are more or less familiar 



the calves at Woburn Abbey than their movements, 

 which recalled those of a Polar Bear more than those 

 of an ox or a sheep, the hocks being turned outwards in 

 an altogether peculiar and distinctive manner. If this 

 strange gait is also chai-acteristic of the adult, it is pro- 

 bably adapted for progression on glaciers and other ice- 

 coated surfaces ; firmness of foothold being secured by 

 the presence of a considerable amount of hair on the 

 under surface of the foot. 



But there is one respect in which the Clavcring Island 

 calves differ from the adult specimens exhibited in the 

 British Museum, as well as from the description gene- 

 rally given of the si^ecies. This is the presence of a 

 large patch of white hair on the forehead, as well as of 



YovMi BuLi MrsK-Ox. 



[F,-. 



a Photo'ifai'lt }>ii the Duchess of Bedfori». 



with the general ajipearance of the adult Musk-Ox ; 

 but those who are not would do well to turn to its 

 portrait in some work on natural history, or, still better, 

 pay a visit to the British Museum at South Kensington, 

 where both the mounted skin and the skeleton are ex- 

 hibited. The absence of the large flattened, fibrous, 

 and downwardly curving yellow horns which almost 

 meet in the middle line of the forehead of the adult 

 bull renders the aspect of the head of the calf very 

 different. In other respects, however, the calves arc 

 very like the full-grown animals in general appearance, 

 showing the same long, straight, and rather coarse hair, 

 the conspicuous light-coloured " saddle on the back, the 

 white ■' stockings, ' the woolly triangular ears, the broad 

 and almost completely hairy muzzle, and the entire 

 burying of the rudimentary tail in the long hair of the 

 hind-quarters. Owing, however, to the inferior length 

 of the hair on the flanks, more of the legs is exhibited 

 in the young than in the adult; and this enables the 

 peculiarly heavy and massive form of the pasterns and 

 feet to be better seen. Nothing was more curious ivbout 



an ill-defined white streak down each side of the face, 

 and some scattered white hairs in the middle line be- 

 tween the muzzle and the eyes. When this featui'e 

 was first noticed, it was thought that the East Greenland 

 Musk-Ox might prove to be a race distinct from the 

 West Greenland and American form, in which the face 

 is, at least in most cases, uniformly dark brown. I have, 

 however, received from Dr. A. G. Nathorst an illustrated 

 account in Swedish of Musk-Ox hunting in East Green- 

 land in 1899 ; and the photographs in this, although 

 they are unfortunately on a very small scale and by no 

 means distinct, seem to show that while some of the bulls 

 have brown faces, in others there is a considerable 

 amount of white, yet the large frontal patch of white 

 which forms such a conspicuous feature of the calves is, 

 of course, obliterated by the expanded bases of the 

 horns. Accordingly, there seem to be no grounds for 

 separating the Musk-Os of East Greenland from its 

 representative in West Greenland and Arctic America, 

 although the two would appear to be completely 

 isolated. 



