108 MAMMALIA. 



is a savage animal, that has now taken refuge in the great marshy forests of 

 Lithuania, of the Krapacs, and of Caucasus, but which formerly inhabited all 

 the temperate parts of Europe. It is the largest quadruped proper to Europe. 



B. bison, Lin. (The Buffalo or Bison of America.) The bony head very 

 similar to that of the Aurochs; and, like the Aurochs, it has the head, neck, 

 and shoulders covered with frizzled wool, which becomes very long in winter ; 

 its legs and tail are shorter. Inhabits all the temperate parts of North America. 



B. bubalus, Lin. (The Buffalo.) Originally from India, and brought into 

 Egypt, Greece, and Italy, during the middle century: has a convex forehead, 

 higher than wide, the horns directed sideways, and marked in front by a 

 longitudinal ridge. This animal is subdued with difficulty. It is extremely 

 powerful, and prefers the marshy grounds, and coarse plants on which the 

 ox could not live. Its milk is good, and the hide very strong, but the flesh is 

 not esteemed. 



There is a race of them in India, whose horns include a space of ten feet 

 from tip to tip : it is called Ami in Hindostan. 



B. grunniens, Pall. (The Yack.) A small species, with the tail com- 

 pletely covered with long hairs like that of the horse, and a long inane on the 

 back. This animal, of which JElian has spoken, is originally from the moun- 

 tains of Thibet. Its tail constitutes the standards still used by the Turks to 

 distinguish the superior officers. 



B. moschatus, Gm. (The Musk Ox of America.) The horns approxi- 

 mated and similarly directed, but meeting on the forehead in a straight line; 

 those of the female are smaller and more widely separated; the forehead is 

 convex, and the end of the muzzle furnished with hairs. 



ORDER IX. 



CETACEA. 



THE Cetacea are mammiferous animals without hind feet ; their trunk is 

 continued by a thick tail, terminating in an horizontal cartilaginous fin, and 

 their head is united to the trunk by a neck, so thick and short, that no dimi- 

 nution of its diameter can be perceived, and composed of very slender cervical 

 vertebra;, which are partly anchylosed or soldered together. The first bones 

 of the anterior extremities are shortened, and the succeeding ones flattened 

 and enveloped in a tendinous membrane, which reduces them to true fins. 

 Their external form is altogether that of fishes, the tail fin excepted, which in 

 the latter is vertical. They always therefore remain in the water ; but as they 

 respire by lungs, they are compelled to return frequently to its surface to take 

 in fresh supplies of air. Independently of this, their warm blood, their ears 

 with external though small openings, their vivaparous production, the mam- 

 ma? with which they suckle their young, and all the details of their anatomy 

 sufficiently distinguish them from fishes. 



To the genera of the Cetacea hitherto admitted, we add others formerly con- 

 founded with the Morses. 



