On these opinions of M. Faujas, M. Cuvier observes, that it is not ne- 

 cessary to go so far as the Indies to find the living species to which these 

 horns belong. The truth is, he says, that the first of these skulls is that of 

 an auroch, with no difference which can reasonably be considered as 

 specific ; and the second belongs, he conceives, simply to the species of 

 our domestic ox, of which it has all the characters. The magnitude of 

 them, compared with the common skeletons, and the direction of the 

 horns, occasion the illusion ; but these, he adds, are circumstances which 

 naturalists know are not constant characters, arid not proper to be em- 

 ployed for the distinction of species. 



To assist vou in making the necessary distinctions, I shall here intro- 



V / 



duce to you the osteologic characters of the skulls of the aurochs and -the 

 ox, as given by M. Cuvier himself*. " The forehead of the ox is flat, 

 and even a little concave; that of the auroch, although a little less so than 

 in the ox, is rather tumid. In the o.r, the forehead has a square form, 

 being nearly as high as it is wide, taking its base between the orbits ; in 

 the auroch, measuring it in the same way, it is much wider than it is 

 high, the width being to the height as three to two. The horns, in the 

 ox, are attached to the extremities of the projecting line at the top of 

 the head, which separates the occiput from the forehead; in the auroch, 

 this line is two inches backwarder than the roots of the horns. In the o.v, 

 the plane of the occiput makes an acute angle with the forehead; in the 

 auroch, this angle is obtuse. Lastly, the plane of the occi,?ut, which is 

 quadrangular in the o.v, forms a semicircle in the auroch." The cha- 

 racters which M. Cuvier here assigns to the ox are common to all its 

 known varieties. 



To these distinctive characters, taken from the skull, may be added 

 these, which serve to determine the propriety of regarding the auroch 

 as a different species from the ox. M. Daubenton ascertained, that in 

 the auroch there are fourteen pair of ribs ; whilst in the ox, and the 



* Menagerie du Mas. d'Hist. Nat. art. du Zebu. - 



