MONOGRAPH 



ON 



THE BRITISH MAMMALIA 



OF THE 



PLEISTOCENE PERIOD. 



Order-UNGULATA. 

 Sdb-order— ABTIODACTTLA. 



Family— OVID^E. 



Genus — Ovibos. 

 Species — Ovibos moschatus, Blainville. 



CHAPTER I. 



§ 1. Introduction. §2. Zoology. 



§ 3. Habits and present Range. 



§ 1. Introduction. — Ovibos moschatus, more commonly known as the Musk Ox of 

 North America, has been described by naturalists under various names, as their opinions 

 fluctuated concerning its affinities to the Oxen, Buffaloes, or Sheep. It is called the 

 Bceuf Musque by its original discoverer in Hudson's Bay, M. Jeremie, 1 by Drage, 3 Dobbs, & 

 Ellis, 4 Hearne, 5 and all the arctic explorers of the present century. Under this name it 

 was first systematically described by our countryman Pennant, 6 who also gives an 

 admirable figure of the male and female, as well as by Buffon. It is described under 

 the name of Bos moschatus by Gmelin, 7 Zimmermann, 8 Schreber, 9 Blumenbach, 10 



1 'Voyage au Nord,' t. iii, p. 314. 2 'Voyage,' vol. ii, p. 2C0. 



3 'Hudson's Bay,' pp. 19, 25. * 'Voyage,' p. 232. 



5 'Journey a.d. 1/70, 1772,' 4to, pp. 135-9. 



6 ' Arctic Quadrupeds,' vol. i, p. 8, pi. ii (a.d. 1 784). See also his * History of Quadrupeds,' published 

 in 1781, in which he speaks of it as a Musk Buffalo, vol. i, p. 27. 



7 Lin., ' Syst. Nat.,' ed. Gmelin, i, p. 205. 8 ' Geograph. Gesch.,' ii, p. 2G. 

 9 ' Saiigethiere,' 302. ™ 'Handb.,' 10, pp. 122-6. 



1 



