414 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



domestic oxen, square from the orbits to the occipital 

 crest, somewhat hollow at the forehead, and the horns 

 shewing a peculiar rise from their root, at the side of the 

 above crest, upwards, and then bending outwards, then 

 forward and inwards. No domestic race shews this turn, 

 but numerous specimens of inferior size, found fossil in 

 some of the Cornish mines, have this shape, and the Wild 

 Bull of Scotland alone in part retains it *. The rest of 

 the living Taurine group have the square, concave forehead, 

 with the horns rising from the ends of the frontal ridge : 

 they are destitute of a mane, have a deep dewlap, but only 

 thirteen pair of ribs ; the tail is rooted in a kind of groove, 

 between the extremities of the coccygian bones, and hangs 

 down to the heels. The original colour appears to have 

 been black. It would be superfluous to enter further into 

 details, which are sufficiently known to every reader. 



The Fossil Urus. (B. Urus.) The characters already 

 noted of this species, are sufficient to give a just idea of a 

 race whose remains lie scattered over the whole of tem- 

 perate Europe, in the same strata with the lost species of 

 Elephant, and therefore belonging to a zoology of a former 

 period ; and again more frequently in later formations, in 

 peat mosses, drained lakes, marshes, and sand beds. From 

 the testimony of Cassar may be inferred that the colossal 

 species existed in his time, and countenance the conjecture 

 that it was the same which was vanquished by the heroes 

 of antiquity, including that slain by Philip of Macedon, 

 who hung up its spoils in the vestibule of the temple of 

 Hercules. The wild races of inferior size come nearer the 

 present time, and may exist even now in Asia. We have 

 already seen that Herberstein, in his Moscovite History 



* This character is strongly marked in the golden bull head 

 ornaments, found in the grave of King Childeric, near Tournay. 

 See Chifflet and Montfaucon. 



