454 ZOOLOGY. 



Formerly its range was mucli more extensive, overspreading most of the 

 United States. It is, however, probable that the bison did not occur east 

 of Hudson Eiver and Lake Champlain, and perhaps in no point on the 

 immediate Atlantic coast. 



The common ox. Bos taurus (^j?. 107, figs. 7 and 8), is supposed to be 

 derived from a stock now extinct, and which formerly inhabited Europe, 

 and only found now in a fossil state. How far this is the case it is impos- 

 sible to say. In the numberless varieties the horns have very different 

 directions, and are of very difi'erent sizes, sometimes even totally wanting. 

 The common races of the torrid zone have all a lump of fat U|)ou their 

 shoulders, and some of them are not larger than the hog. 



The ure-ox {Bos urus\ which formerly inhabited all the temperate 

 parts of Europe, but has now taken refuge in the great marshy forests 

 of Lithuania and the Caucasus, where it is become so exceedingly rare, 

 that in order to prevent its complete destruction and disappearance from 

 among living animals, the penalty of death is threatened to all who may 

 kill one of them. It has been generally considered, and perhaps very 

 erroneously, as the wild stock of our domestic horned cattle. 



Another species is Bos huhoJus {pi. 109, fig. 2), originally confined to 

 India, and brought into Egypt and Greece during the middle ages. This 

 animal is subdued with great difficulty, being extremely powerful; it prefers 

 marshy grounds, and feeds upon coarse plants which the common ox would 

 refuse. Its flesh is not esteemed. In the mountainous districts of the 

 northwest of India there is a domestic race, which very likely is descended 

 from this species. 



A third species is the yak {B. grunniens), originally from the mountains 

 of Thibet, and now very widely spread in Turkey. It is a small species, 

 the tail of which is completely covered with long hairs like that of the 

 horse, and provided with a long mane on the back. 



A very large species, of an excessively ferocious disposition, inhabits the 

 woods of Caffraria, the Cape buffalo {B. caffer\ provided with very large 

 horns directed outwards and downwards, ascending from the point, flat- 

 tened, and so wide at their base that they nearly cover the forehead, leaving 

 merely a triangular space between them. 



The oxen made their first appearance in Europe towards the end of the 

 tertiary epoch, and seem to have been quite numerous, for their remains 

 are found in almost all the caverns and sandy deposits. Two species are 

 described as peculiar to the State of Kentucky {B. homhifrons and B. 

 latifrons). A fragment of the head of an ox was found near one of the 

 tributaries of the Orange river (Africa) ; several species are indicated in 

 the Sivalic Mountains and other parts of the Asiatic continent, showing a 

 disti'ibution similar in both the tertiary and modern eras. 



The genus Ovibos contains but one species, the musk ox of North 

 America {0. moschatus). The horns are approximated and similarl}^ 

 directed, but meet on the forehead in a straight line ; those of the female 

 are smaller and more widely separated ; the end of the snout is furnished 

 with hairs. It stands low, and is covered with tufted hair that reaches to 

 658 



