360 UNGULATA 
is fat its flesh is well tasted, and resembles that of the Caribou, but 
has a coarser grain. The flesh of the bulls is highly flavoured, and 
both bulls and cows when lean smell strongly of musk, their flesh 
at the same time being very dark and tough, and certainly far 
inferior to that of any other ruminating animal existing in North 
America.” The carcase of a Musk-Ox weighs, exclusive of fat, above 
3 cwt. On this subject, Major Feilden? says: ‘The cause of the 
disagreeable odour which frequently taints the flesh of these animals 
has received no elucidation from my observations. It does not 
appear to be confined to either sex, or to any particular season of 
the year ; for a young unweaned animal, killed at its mother’s side 
and transferred within an hour to the stew-pans, was as rank and 
objectionable as any. The flesh of some of these animals of which 
I have partaken was dark, tender, and as well flavoured as that of 
four-year old Southdown mutton.” 
Remains of two fossil species of this genus (0. bombifrons and 
O. cavifrons) have been described from Pleistocene beds in the 
United States, the one from Kentucky and the other from the 
Arkansas River. Both (if indeed they be valid species) appear 
closely allied to the living form. 
Bovine Section.—Horns present and of nearly equal size in both 
sexes ; in form rounded or angulated, placed on or near the vertex 
of the skull, extending more or less outwards, and curving upwards 
near the extremities; external surface comparatively smooth and 
never marked by prominent transverse ridges or knobs. Muzzle 
broad, with large naked muffle ; nostrils lateral; no suborbital 
gland. Skull without any trace of lachrymal fossa or fissure. Tail 
long and cylindrical ; generally tufted at the extremity, rarely 
hairy throughout. Males usually with a dew-lap on the throat. No 
foot-glands. Molar teeth extremely hypsodont ; those of the upper 
jaw with a nearly square cross-section, and a large accessory inner 
column. 
The section is abundantly represented in the Palearctic, 
Oriental, and Ethiopian regions, with one Nearctic species and an 
outlying and aberrant species in Celebes. 
os.2—The whole of the species of Oxen were included by 
Linneus in the single genus Sos, and although the species have 
been distributed by modern zoologists in several genera—such as 
Anoa, Bubalus, Bison, Poéphagus, Bibos, and Bos—the characters by 
which they are separated are so slight that it seems, on the whole, 
preferable to retain the old genus in its original wide sense. Using 
then the term Bos in this sense, it will include all the representatives 
of the section—about a dozen in number—and may be divided 
into several groups. 
1 Zoologist, September 1877. 
* Linn. Syst, Nad. 12th ed. vol. i. p. 98 (1766). 
