»39b CLASS MAMMALIA. 



luminous view which Baron Cuvier furnishes on the subject. 

 He says " the forehead of the Ox is flat and even slightly 

 concave; that of the Aurochs (Bison) is arched, though 

 somewhat less than in the Buffalo : it is in the Ox nearly 

 equal in height and breadth, taking the base between the 

 orbits ; in the Aurochs, measured in the same place, the 

 breadth greatly surpasses the height, in the proportion 

 of three to two : the horns of the Ox are attached to the 

 extremity of the highest salient line of the head ; that 

 which separates the forehead from the occiput : in the 

 Aurochs this line is two inches behind the root of the 

 horns : the plane of the occiput forms an acute angle 

 with the forehead in the Ox ; that angle is obtuse in the 

 Aurochs : finally, that plane of the occiput quadrangular 

 in the Ox, is semicircular in the Aurochs. 



These characters are constant in all the varieties deriving 

 from the Ox, including those with hunched backs : besides, 

 the Bison has fourteen pair of ribs, while the Ox, in com- 

 mon with most ruminants, numbers only thirteen pair: the 

 legs are more slender than those of the Ox or Buffalo, and 

 the tongue is blue, while the Ox has it flesh colour. Mr. 

 Gilibert who reared an individual, naming the species by 

 its true appellation, represents the hair of the female Bison 

 as soft, placed in the skin at an obtuse angle : of two sorts 

 one long and the other soft ; while those of the Cow are of 

 one kind, hard and close to the hide. Those of the male 

 Bison are very long under the jaw and throat, and upon 

 the shoulders and upper arms ; also upon the back, but less 

 prominent : the tail descends to the houghs, and is pro- 

 vided with abundance of long black hair ; the summit 

 of the head is covered with a bushy and spreading space of 

 long hairs, strongly impregnated with musk; and the horns 

 are short, lateral, black, and pointed ; the eyes large, round, 

 and full. The back part of the body is covered with shorter 



