328 Miscellaneous. 



one use these crabs make of this appendage. If they are turned 

 over on their backs, they bend down the tail until they can reach 

 some point of resistance, and then use it to elevate the body and 

 regain their normal position ; and they did this repeatedly and 

 quickly. They have never been seen to use this tail for the purpose 

 which has often been assigned to it — that is, for leaping from place 

 to place by bending it under their body, like the toy called a "spring- 

 jack" or " leaping-frog." 



Delphinus crassidens. 

 This Cetacean, which was described by Professor Owen, in his 

 work on Fossil Mammalia, from a skull found in the bottom of a 

 fen in Lincolnshire, has lately been discovered as a recent species, 

 which occurs in great shoals in the North Sea. The animal and its 

 anatomy have been described by Professor Reinhardt of Copenhagen, 

 under the name of Pseudorca crassidens, as forming a genus inter- 

 mediate between Grampus and Orca. 



Distribution q/Bos Taurus and Bos Dante in Africa. 

 To Br. J. E. Gray, F.R.S. ^c. 



KSno, Central Africa, July 25, 1862. 



Dear Sir, — I am desirous, through you, of correcting a slight 

 error in Barth's ' Travels,' into which he has apparently been led from 

 want of acquaintance with zoological divisions. In Appendix to 

 vol. iii. p. 574, in speaking of a place named ' Warji' (but which 

 ought to be 'Warzhi'), he says, "Cattle of a peculiar kind called 

 Muturii are frequent here, much smaller than the ox," &c. Now 

 this * Muturii ' is the Bos Taurus, which is the ox of the south and 

 south-west countries to the Gulf of Guinea, and which, from being 

 abundant in Gbari or Gwari, is often called the Gbari ox. I have 

 seen numbers of them, and, about two months ago, while among a 

 wild tribe dwelling on rocks, I saw cattle which I could not have 

 told from small Highland cattle or from our old Orkney cattle ; but 

 all are B. Taurus. The cattle of Hausa, again, and of Bdrnu and 

 the countries on the Great Desert, and westward to Firta Toro, are 

 all B. Dante ; and when in his writings Dr. Barth speaks of cattle 

 or oxen, he always means this species. If not noticed. Dr. Barth's 

 remark might lead to the belief that there is here a new species o( Bos. 



B. Dante has not always a hump : three days ago I bought one, 

 a pack-ox, with enormous horns, but no hump. Old bulls have a 

 regular falx-shaped hump. The prevailing colour is white, with, 

 black muzzle, eyes, and inside of ears, like some wild cattle in Eng- 

 land ; but in some places red and brown are also frequent. In Nupe 

 and other places, the species are crossed, and the offspring has no 

 hump, and approaches more to B. Taurus. I have had several op- 

 portunities of comparing the two, and will, when I am able, send you 

 my remarks. B. Taurus is the prettier of the two. Excuse these 

 few hurried lines, and believe me, dear Sir, 



Very truly yours, 



Wm. Balfour Baikie. 



