986 UNGULATA 



Family BOVID^E. 



1821. Bovichi: Gray, London Med. Eepos., xv, p. 308, April 1, 1821. 



Geographical distribution. — Africa; southern Europe (within 

 historic times north to the Baltic and west to Great Britain) ; 

 Asia, including Japan and the larger Malay Islands ; North 

 America from Greenland to northern Mexico (recently exter- 

 minated over much of its former range). 



Characters. — Artiodactyles with frontal appendages usually 

 occurring in hoth sexes, always, when present, in the form of 

 permanent horns supported by bony cores arising from the frontal 

 bones ; molars usually (always in European members of the 

 family) hypsodont ; lateral digits rudimentary or absent, usually 

 represented by the hoofs alone. 



Remarks. — The family Bovidse is richer in both genera and 

 species than any other group of existing ungulates. About fifty 

 genera are usually recognized, three of which, Oris, Capra and 

 Bupicapra, now occur naturally in western Europe.* 



Genus OVIS Linnaeus. 



1758. Ovis Linnseus, Syst. Nat., i, 10th ed., p. 70. 



1762. Aries Brisson, Eegn. Anim. in 01. ix distrib., 2nd ed., p. 12. 



1776. Musimon Pallas, Spicil. Zoologioa, II, fasc. 11, p. 8 (If. asiaticus). 



1798. Musmon Schrank, Fauna Boioa, I, p. 81 (Substitute for Ovis). 



1795. Aries Link, Zool. Beytrage, i, pt. n, p. 96 (part). 



1816. Ammon Blainville, Bull. Soo. Philomathique, Paris, p. 76, May, 1816 



(Alternative name for Ovis). 

 1857. Ovis Blasius, Saugethiere Deutschlands, p. 466. 



Type species. — Ovis aries Linnseus (by tautonymy). 



Geographical distribution. — Holarctic region from Cyprus and 

 Asia Minor eastward across central and northern Asia, and in 

 western North America from Alaska to northern Mexico ; one 

 species isolated in the Mediterranean portion of Europe. 



Characters. — Bovidne of small size and rather heavy form, the 

 tail normally short, the pelage dense, not tending to special 

 elongation on chin, throat and neck ; feet with glands between 

 the hoofs ; skull conspicuously wedge-shaped in general outline 

 from wide orbital region to narrow rostrum ; occipital region 

 abruptly bent downward, the upper surface concave or nearly 

 flat, the portion behind zygomata frequently almost tubular in 

 general form ; lachrymal pit present ; nasal branch of premaxillary 

 not wedged between nasal and maxillary ; horns always present 

 in males, usually absent or rudimentary in females, very robust 



* The genera Bos and Bison have become extinct within historic times ; 

 a species of Bubalus, introduced in the seventeenth century, exists in a 

 wild or semi-feral state in parts of Italy. 



