EXTINCT MAMMALIA OF NORTH AMERICA. 375 



Remains of this species are comparatively abundant. They have been found near 

 Fort Gibson, on the Arkansas River ; at New Madrid, on the Mississippi River ; at 

 Big-bone-lick and on the Kentucky River, Kentucky ; in Trumbull County, Ohio ; in 

 Benton County, Missouri; and Prof. Englemann informs me that the great part of a 

 skeleton had been recently discovered in excavating for the foundation of a building 

 in St. Louis. Probably the remains found in the frozen cliffs of Eschscholtz Bay, 

 referred by Richardson to Ovibos maximus, belong to the same species. 



At the time of preparing my memoir on the extinct species of American Ox, I had 

 neither seen a recent Musk Ox skull nor characteristic representations of one. Sub- 

 sequently, in comparing the fossils referred to Bootlierium with Richardson's plates of 

 the Musk Ox skull, in the Zoology of the Voyage of the Herald, my opinion that 

 they might belong to the genus Ovibos appeared to be confirmed, though of this I am 

 not yet quite positive. In the fossils the lachrymal fossaa are of remarkable compara- 

 tive depth ; in the Musk Ox, as represented in Richardson's plates, they appear not 

 to be more conspicuous than in the Sheep, nor does Richardson mention them in the 

 description of the lachrymal bones. Rittimeyer says distinct lachrymal fossae exist 

 in Ovibos, and considers the fossils as belonging to this genus. 



The latter author further views the remains of 0. cavifrons as those of the male, 

 and the specimen of 0. bomhifrons as of the female of the same species, which he 

 names Ovibos jyiiscus. In the adult skull of the Musk Cow, represented in Richard- 

 son's figure 1, plate IV, the bases of the horn cores extend over the frontals to within 

 a short distance of each other, nearly as in the adult Bull. In the aged specimen of 

 Ovibos bomhifrons, the horn cores project laterally from the frontals, far removed from 

 each other, as is represented to be the case in Richardson's figure 2, plate IV, of a 

 Musk Bull sixteen months old. From this resemblance it may be inferred that the 

 fossil referred to 0. hombifro^is represents the male of a species of more primitive 

 character than the Ovibos moschaius. These facts further throw doubt on the view 

 of Rtitimeyer, that 0. bombifrons is the female of 0. cavifrons. 



OVIS. 

 Ovis mammilaris. 



Sheep, Hildreth : Am. Jour. Sc. 1836, XXIX, 146. 



Ovis mammilaris, Anon.: Am. Jour. Sc. 1837, XXXI, 82, Figs. 19. DeKay: Nat. Hbt. New 

 York, Zool. 1842, 1, 112. Leidy : Anc. Fauna Neb. 1853, 9. 



Indicated by the greater part of a skull found in Licking County, Ohio. Qua- 

 ternary. 



