THE BOS LONGIFEONS. 5 



cipital ridge ; but it differs from the contemporary Bos 

 primigenius, not only by its great inferiority of size, being 

 smaller than the ordinary breeds of domestic cattle, but 

 also by the horns being proportionately much smaller and 

 shorter as well as differently directed, and by the forehead 

 being less concave. It is indeed usually flat; and the 

 frontal bones extend farther beyond the orbits, before 

 they join the nasal bones, than in the Bos primigenms. 

 The horn-cores of the Bos longifrons describe a single short 

 curve outwards and forwards in the plane of the forehead, 

 rarely rising above the plane, more rarely sinking below 

 it : the cores have a very rugged exterior, and are usually 

 a little flattened at the upper part." 



The accounts of other writers differ but little. The Bos 

 longifrons would seem to have been short in the body, and 

 to have had legs almost as slender as those of the deer. 

 Professor Nilsson, in a paper " On the Extinct and Existing 

 Bovine Animals of Scandinavia," published in the ' Annals 

 and Magazine of Natural History,' says that, as far as he 

 knew, the Bos longifrons was " the smallest of the ox tribe 

 that had lived wild in our portion of the globe ; '' the 

 whole length, " from the muzzle to the end of the rump- 

 bone," having been " about 6 feet 8 inches." The skull 

 would seem to have been long and narrow. The various 

 specimens found and preserved measure in length from 

 the supra-occipital ridge to front edge of intermaxillary 

 bone about 16 to 18 inches ; from roots of horn-cores to 

 upper edge of orbits, about 3^ to 4 inches; breadth of 

 forehead between roots of horn-cores, from 5 to 6^ inches ; 

 breadth of skiiU across middle of orbits, from 6 to 7 inches ; 

 circumference of horn-cores at base, from 4 to 7 inches ; 

 length of horn-cores along outer-curvature, from 3 to 7 

 inches ; and span from tip to tip of horn-cores, from 9 to 

 16 inches. 



From the bison and other varieties of humped cattle — 

 Bos prisons, Bos iabuliis, Bos indicus, &c. — these two types. 



