CATALOGUE. 185 



tionally broad, without any mane or dewlap, having a downward 

 tendency. The horns are far apart, placed in front of the occipital 

 ridge, cylindrical at the base, from which they rise obliquely outward 

 and forward two-thirds of their length, when they bend inward with a 

 semicircular curve, the points being directed to each other from the 

 opposite sides. The muffle is small, the border of the nostrils callous, 

 the ears short and hairy. At the withers there is a slight elevation, 

 but no protuberance or hump, as in the Indian Ox. The dorsal ridge 

 not prominent ; body of full dimensions ; rump and hinder parts 

 proportionally large ; limbs rather small and slender ; hoofs smooth, 

 square, and well defined, not expanded, as in the Musk Ox ; anterior 

 false hoofs small ; posterior large ; tail short, not reaching beyond 

 the houghs, naked for some inches at the root, very bushy, lax, and 

 expanded in the middle. Colour, black throughout, but varying in 

 tint according to the character of the hairy covering; this, on the 

 anterior parts, the neck, shoulders, back, and sides, is short, soft, 

 and of a jet black colour, but long, shaggy, pendulous, and shining on 

 the sides of the anterior extremities, and from the medial part of the 

 abdomen over the thighs to the hinder parts. 



The general aspect of the specimen is bovine ; as to its affinity, in a 

 natural arrangement it is more nearly related to the Bos taurus, the 

 common domestic Ox, than to the Gayal (Bos frontalis) or the Gour 

 (Bibos cavifrons). 



The specimen here described was obtained in the high regions of 

 Ladak by chase, and exhibits the Yak in its natural or wild state. The 

 descriptions and figures of Turner and Pennant represent the animal as 

 modified by domestication, or mixture with other bovine species, when 

 the lump on the shoulders is produced, the hair on the upper parts 

 becomes white, and that of the tail long, silky, and pendulous : in 

 which state it is manufactured into chouries, or switches, which are in 

 common use by the natives as brushes or fans against flies. Several 

 individuals of the hybrid race have been brought to England ; one of 

 these, presented by Captain Samuel Turner to Warren Hastings, Esq., 

 arrived safe, and lived some time in his Menagerie. This is figured in 

 Turner's Embassy to Tibet ; the other is figured in the Proceedings of 

 the Zool. Soc. for 1849, pi. XX., with the following brief explanatory 

 notice : " It was imported from India some four years ago, and appears 

 to be the produce of a Zebu mother and a Yak sire." Mr. Gray 

 refers to this in Knowsley Menagerie, p. 50. 



The Yak inhabits the high regions of Tibet and the neighbouring 

 countries. Mr. Hodgson informs us that it cannot live on this side 



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