18 HOOFED ANIMALS 



to the body is a woolly coat of very fine, soft, light-brown 

 hair, very clean, and so dense that neither cold nor moisture 

 can penetrate it. This is for warmth. The longer and coarser 

 hair that grows through it is the storm-coat, to shed rain and 

 snow. Our first Musk-Ox began to shed its woolly under- 

 coat on April 10. On April 26 it was loose all over the body, 

 and beginning to hang in rags; therefore, for both the com- 

 fort and the appearance of the animal, we threw her upon 

 the ground, held her securely, and combed it all out. It was 

 very fine, curly, free from oil, and the entire mass weighed 

 six pounds. 



Although known for more than a century, the Musk-Ox 

 is one of the last of the large land mammals of the world to 

 come into captivity for public exhibition, and it was not until 

 1900 that its soft anatomy was studied for the first time. 



Anatomically, this animal presents a few sheep-like fea- 

 tures. By some writers their importance has been so much 

 exaggerated that the name "Musk-Sheep" has been proposed 

 as a substitute for Musk-Ox. But the sheep-like characters 

 are insignificant in comparison with those that are clearly 

 ox-like. 1 



Two species have been described. That of the Barren 

 Grounds of the mainland of North America has long been 

 known as Ovibos moschatus. In 1901 the animal of Green- 

 land and northern Grinnell Land was described as Ovibos 

 wardi, the White-Fronted Musk-Ox, because of a band of 

 gray or dirty -white hair, extending across the top of its head. 



1 See E. Lonnberg, on "The Anatomy of the Musk-Ox," in the Proceedings 

 of the Zoological Society of London, 1900. 



