that the animal, whatever else It might be, was neither an ox, a 

 sheep, nor a goat. The characters, moreover, upon which this genus 

 is established, are in reality so many negative traits, and merely 

 served to distinguish all other hollow-horned Ruminants from the 

 oxen, sheep, and the goats respectively, but they limit no positive 

 group, and consequently cannot be received as the definition of a 

 natural genus. The genus AntUope in a short time became an 

 asylum for the reception of all hollow-horned Ruminants, which 

 could not be associated with the known genera Bos, Ovis, and Capra, 

 find consequently the most Incongi-uous forms and opposite charac- 

 ters were associated In the same genus, till, Independently of its un- 

 philosophlcal structure and total want of character, whether natui'al 

 or artificial, the practical inconvenience arising from its undue ex- 

 tension, forced zoologists to devise the partial remedies detailed 

 above, and which all proceeded upon one common principle, that, 

 namely, of dividing the genus AntUope Into such subordinate groups 

 as were conceived best calculated to obviate the inconsistencies, and 

 approximate those species which most nearly resembled one an- 

 other In habit and conformation. In thus subdividing the genus An- 

 tUope it is assumed by every writer on the subject to be a natural 

 group, even whilst they confess that it has not a single character 

 either exclusively appropriate to it or even common to the generality 

 of Its component species : far, therefore, from being a natural. It is 

 not even entitled to be considered an artificial group. The diagnosis 

 proposed by M. GeofFroy St. Hllaire regarding the nature of the core 

 of the horns, and that broached at a meeting of the Zoological So- 

 ciety by ]\I. Agassiz, to the effect that these animals are distinguished 

 from Bos, Ovis, and Cajira, by having a spiral twist of the horns 

 turning from left to right, instead of the opposite direction, are 

 founded upon hasty generalizations, inapplicable to at least three- 

 fourths of the species. 



The form or curvature of the horns, the beard, the dewlap, the 

 scopa;, the number of teats, and other such diagnoses hitherto em- 

 ployed to define the genera of Ruminants, according to the views of 

 Mr. Ogilby, are purely trivial and accidental characters, which not 

 only exercise no assignable influence on the habits or economy of 

 the animals, but which may be modified to any extent, or even 

 destroyed altogether, without in the slightest degree changing the 

 generic relations. 



Having demonstrated the imperfections of the actual distribution 

 of hollow-horned Ruminants.v Mr. Ogilby proceeds to the exposition 

 of the principles which he proposes to make use of for that purpose, 

 and to explain the nature and extent of his own researches. He In- 

 sists, upon the law of classification, that no generic characters should 

 be admitted but such as are founded upon the necessary relations 

 that subsist between the organic structure of animals and their 

 habits and economy. 



The next section of the monograph is devoted to the consideration 

 of the horns of the Ruminantia, Under this head the author first 

 treats of their substance ; 2ndly, their permanent or deciduous cha- 



