104 



ORDERS OF MAMMALS— HOOFED ANIMALS 



in captivity with a feeling of wonder, as if it were 

 a creature from another world. There are times, 

 also, when I wonder whether many of the visit- 

 ors who see them quietly munching their clover 

 hay, appreciate the effort that has been put forth 

 to capture them in the remote and desolate re- 

 gions of the far North, keep them alive, and bring 

 them to civilization for public exhibition. 



The Musk-Ox is one of the strangest of all our 

 large animals, and its appearance is so odd and 

 striking that when once seen by an observant 

 person it is not easily forgotten. In it one sees 

 an oblong mass of very long and wavy brown 

 hair, 4J feet high by 65 feet long, supported upon 



YOUNG FEMALE MUSK-OX. 

 In the New York Zoological Park, 1902. 



very short and post-like legs that are half hidden 

 by the sweeping pelage of the body. The three- 

 inch tail is so very small and short it is quite 

 invisible. There is a blunt and hairy muzzle, 

 round and shining eyes, but the ears are almost 

 invisible. 



The whole top of the head is covered by a pair 

 of horns enormously flattened at the base, and 

 meeting each other in the centre line of the fore- 

 head. From the meeting point they sweep 

 downward over the edge of the cranium, close to 

 the cheeks, but finally recurve upward before 

 coming to a point, like the waxed mustache of 

 a boulevardier. 



The iris of the Musk-Ox is of a chocolate brown 



color, the pupils are elongated, and bluish-purple. 

 The lips and tip of the tongue are also bluish- 

 purple. 



The outer hair is a foot or more in length, and 

 often touches the snow when the animal walks. 

 In the middle of the back is a broad "saddle- 

 mark," of shorter, dull-gray hair. Next to the 

 body is a woolly coat of very fine, soft, light brown 

 hair, very clean, and so dense that neither cold 

 nor moisture can penetrate it. This is for 

 warmth. The longer and coarser hair that grows 

 through it is the storm-coat, to shed rain and 

 snow. Our first Musk-Ox began to shed its 

 woolly under-coat on April 10. On April 26, it 

 was loose all over the body, and beginning to 

 hang in rags; therefore, for both the comfort 

 and the appearance of the animal, we threw her 

 upon the ground, held her securely, and combed 

 it all out. It was very fine, curly, free from oil, 

 and the entire mass weighed six pounds. 



Although known for more than a century, the 

 Musk-Ox is one of the last of the large land mam- 

 mals of the world to come into captivity for pub- 

 lic exhibition, and it was not until 1900 that its 

 soft anatomy was studied for the first time. 



Anatomically, this animal presents a few 

 sheep-like features. By some writers their im- 

 portance has been so much exaggerated that the 

 name "Musk-Sheep" has been proposed as a 

 substitute for Musk-Ox. But the sheep-like 

 characters are insignificant in comparison with 

 those that are clearly ox-like. 1 



Two species have been described. That of the 

 Barren Grounds of the mainland of North Amer- 

 ica has long been known as Ovibos moschatus. 

 In 1901, the animal of Greenland and northern 

 Grinnell Land was described as Ovibos ivardi, the 

 White-Fronted Musk-Ox, because of a band of 

 gray or dirty-white hair, extending across the top 

 of its head. 



Although this animal is called a Musk-Ox, it 

 has neither the odor nor taste of musk, and its 

 flesh is excellent food. General Greely, Com- 

 mander Peary and many other explorers have 

 feasted on its flesh. In their native desolation, 

 these animals go in herds of from twenty to fifty 

 head, are easily brought to bay by dogs, and 

 under such circumstances they stupidly stand 



1 See E. Lonnbergl on the Anatomy of the Musk-Ox, 

 in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of Lon- 

 don, 1900. 



