168 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 
Great Extinct Ox or Urus in Linlithgowshire.—There 
is abundant proof that the Urus, Los primigenius, was a widely- 
distributed denizen of Scotland from post-glacial times till the 
period when the greater part of our peat-bogs was formed. During 
the marl and peat period it appears to have had its headquarters in © 
lowland Scotland, and more particularly in the Tweed valley; but 
this apparent distribution may be due partly to the possibility that 
peat-bogs and marl-beds may have been more thoroughly explored in 
this more populous region. A fine, if fragmentary, skull of the Urus, 
obtained some years ago on the southern border of the Firth of 
Forth near South Queensferry, adds to our knowledge of the distribu- 
tion of the Wild Ox, which has not previously been described 
from Linlithgowshire. The skull was presented by the late Mr 
Stewart-Clark of Dundas to the Royal Scottish Museum, but it 
appears not to have been described at the time, although Dr R. H. 
Traquair exhibited it at a meeting of the Royal Society of Edin- 
burgh on 2nd May 1904 (Proc. Roy. Soc. Edin., 1906, vol. xxv., 
p. 1175). A reference based upon this exhibition occurs in the 
Geological Survey Memoir on Zhe Neighbourhood of Edinburgh 
(oro; p: 412): 
I am able to record the details of the discovery of the Dundas 
skull from information kindly supplied by Sir John Stewart-Clark. 
It was found in 1904, during the making of a new embankment at 
the end of the loch at Dundas Castle, at a depth of just over 6 ft., 
and in fairly firm beds adjoining the peat moss on which the loch 
lies. The description suggests that the skull was found in the marl 
underlying the peat layers. 
The remains consist of the front of a skull, from the orbits 
upwards, and bear a fine pair of horn-cores. The following 
measurements give some indication of the size of the creature :— 
Breadth of forehead between bases of horn-cores, 1o in.; breadth 
of front between orbits, 114 in.; breadth of front above orbits, 
9} in.; height from occipital crest to level of top of orbit, 9 in. 
The horn-cores measure :—Along outer curve, right core, 2 ft. 1} in., 
left, 2 ft. 4 in.; circumference at base, right and left, 1 ft. # in.; 
span between tips, 2 ft. 4 in. The condition of the skull allows of 
no other definitive measurements, but the forehead is of the usual flat 
type, and the occipital crest is low and straight.—James RITCHIE. 
