BOS LONGIFRONS. 509 



unless the Bos trocJioceros of M. v. Meyer* be actually 

 a distinct and contemporary species. If, however, we 

 admit the justice of Cuvier's remark, and regard the great 

 Urus as a variety of Bos taurus, it is not the less an ori- 

 ginal one, since it was coeval with the Aurochs, and ex- 

 isted long anterior to all records and evidences of domesti- 

 cated cattle. It was as wild as the Aurochs in the time 

 of Caesar ; and there is as little proof of its having ante- 

 cedently given origin to the domestic cattle of the Romans 

 as that the Aurochs itself did. 



I have already adverted to the high probability that 

 the Roman colonies in Gaul, Belgium, and Britain, de- 

 rived their domestic cattle from those of the parent State, 

 instead of by the difficult task of subjugating the very 

 formidable species of the fastnesses which those colonists 

 were in progress of reclaiming for the service of civilised 

 life. But, if it should still be contended that the natives of 

 Britain, or any part of them, obtained their cattle by tam- 

 ing a primitive wild race, neither the Bison nor the great 

 Urus are so likely to have furnished the source of their 

 herds as the smaller primitive wild species, or original 

 variety of Bos, which is the subject of the present section. 



A frontlet and horn-core of this species formed part of 

 the original collection of fossils of JOHN HUNTER, in the 

 manuscript catalogue of which collection it was recorded 

 as having been obtained " from a bog in Ireland." I had 

 entered it, in the catalogue of the museum of the College 

 of Surgeons in 1830, under the name of Bos brachyceros, 

 on account of its peculiarly short horns ; and, after the 

 imposition of that name by Mr. Gray upon a wild African 

 existing species of Bos, I changed the name to Bos longi- 

 frons, under which the remains of this interesting species 

 * ' Palaeologica,' p. 96. 



