1901.] Allen, Musk-Oxen of Arctic America and Greenland. 7 1 



region seems to have a practically continuous distribution on 

 the American side from the southern part of Ellesmere Land 

 (about Lat. 78) northward to the Polar Sea, and on the Green- 

 land side, from Melville Bay (about Lat. 75) northward, east- 

 ward, and southward along the east coast to King William Land 

 in about latitude 74 30'. It seems probable, as stated by 

 Greely (Three Years of Arctic Service, Vol. II, 1886, p. 361), 

 that the Musk-Ox may have reached Greenland from the west at 

 two points, namely by crossing Smith Sound from Ellesmere 

 Land, and also by crossing Robeson Channel from Grinnell 

 Land, thence finding easy passage along the low Greenland coast 

 to East Greenland. 



As very few details have been published regarding the ex- 

 ternal characters of the East Greenland Musk-Ox, 1 and none in 

 regard to the Ellesmere Land form, it seems desirable to utilize 

 the present materials as a contribution to the subject. 

 Ovibos wardi (Lydekker). 

 PEARY'S MUSK-OX. 



Ovibos moschatus wardi LYDEKKER, Nature, LXIII, p. 157, Dec. 13, 1900. 



Ovibos pearyi ALLEN, MS. 



General coloration, including horns, lighter than in 0. moschatus, with a 

 white or whitish face-spot, and the ears and whole front of the head more 

 or less gray, instead of wholly dark brown as in O. moschatus ; basal portion 

 of the horns much narrower and of different shape from those of 0. moschatus. 



Adult Male. Above with a ' saddle-mark ' of light brown or whitish brown 

 on the middle of the back, varying somewhat in degree of lightness, size, and 

 shape in different individuals ; rest of the body dark brown, lighter and more 

 rufous brown on the shoulders ; a white area on the front of the head, forming 

 a broad face-spot ; ears and a rather broad, not well-defined patch below the 

 ears, spreading forward on the sides of the head, gray ; the rest of the head, 

 where not white, whitish, or grayish white, is more or less grizzled through the 

 admixture of white hairs ; whole nose white or whitish, the white of the nose 

 separated from the white of the forehead by a darker band half way between fore- 

 head and nose ; feet white or whitish from the hoof sup ward to or a little beyond 

 the carpal and tarsal joints, including nearly .all of the portion of the 

 limbs not concealed by the long shaggy coat of the body, becoming darker 

 proximally so that the white of the feet rather gradually merges into the darker 

 color of the upper segments of the limbs. The white on the head in old 



1 Its soft anatomy has been recently described by Dr. Einar Lonnberg ( ' On the Soft Anat- 

 omy of the Musk-Ox ( Ovibos moschatus)! Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1900, pp. 142-167, with 

 14 text figures), and the same author (t. c., pp. 686-718, with 10 text cuts) has also given an ac- 

 count of the development of the horns, the character of the hoofs, and a detailed description of 

 the skull, based on specimens obtained in East Greenland by the Swedish Expedition in 1899. 

 Sir John Richardson s description of the osteology of the Musk-Ox, based on specimens from 

 the Arctic Barren Grounds, in the ' Voyage of the Herald,' is well known. 



