10 PLEISTOCENE MAMMALIA. 



Phalange 3. — The articulation extends downwards nearer the palmar surface of the 

 bone than in Ox or Sheep ; in the former it is deeper than broad ; the description is the 

 same as that of the hoof phalange of the fore leg. 



§ 3. Place in Classification. — The evidence, therefore, of its ovine affinities afforded 

 by the external characters of the animal is proved to demonstration by its osteology. It 

 is separated from Ovis by many characters which have been enumerated, and especially 

 by the share which the parietals take in supporting the horns of the old male, and by the 

 presence of a transverse ridge on the frontals in the old male, as well as by the large size of 

 the animal and its period of gestation of nine months. In no respect has it any relation 

 to Bubalus Coffer. In the zoological scale it stands, as M. de Blainville wrote in 181C, 1 

 between Ovis on the one hand and Bos on the other, being more closely related 

 to the former than the latter, and being separated from the closely allied family of 

 Capridae, by the downward direction of the horns and their closeness to the head. 



§ 4. Measurements. — The following tables of measurement, taken in inches and tenths, 

 show at a glance the relation which the recent holds to the fossil Ovibos, and the enor- 

 mous difference between that animal and the Buffaloes, Oxen, and Bisons. Prom the 

 first table the measurements of the fossil skull, described by Pallas and Ozeretzkowsky, 

 have been purposely excluded, because of the uncertainty as to whether they employed 

 the French, English, or Russian inch, Cuvier taking one view and Sir John Richardson 

 another. The terms of measurement of the pelvis and several of the other measurements 

 are taken from the work of Sir John Richardson so often referred to. 



In the table of measurements of teeth, No. 1 is the antero-posterior extent ; No. 2, the 

 antero-transverse diameter ; No. 3, the postero-transverse ; and all are taken at the base. 

 In the last lower molar there is an additional transverse measurement for the additional 

 lobe. 



In the measurements of long bones the following numbers are used throughout : 



1 . = Maximum length. 



2. = Minimum circumference. 



3. = Transverse measurement of proximal articulation. 



4. = Vertical ditto. 



5. = Transverse measurement of distal articulation. 



6. = Vertical ditto. 



1 Op. cit., Genus, xi. 



