MUSK-OXEN IN ENGLAND 
SomE persons are unfortunate in their names, and the 
same is the case with certain animals. The ruminant 
popularly known as the musk-ox and _ scientifically as 
Ovibos moschatus is an instance of this, for although no 
objection can be taken to the prefix ‘‘ musk,” and its Latin 
eqivalent moschatus, yet the English title “ox” is in the 
highest degree misleading, while the technical ‘‘Ovibos,” 
which suggests characters intermediate between the oxen 
and the sheep, is equally unsatisfactory. To say that the 
creature is an animal sud generis would be a truism, seeing 
that it is the sole existing representative of the genus 
Ovibos; and yet this expression, perhaps, best conveys 
the real state of the case—namely, that it is a more or 
less isolated member of the ruminant group, coming under 
the designation neither of an ox nor a sheep, nor yet 
being a connecting link between the two. Under these 
circumstances it would be much better if the name 
“musk-ox” could be dropped altogether, and (unless it 
be altogether unpronounceable) its native Greenland equi- 
valent adopted instead. Unfortunately, however, I have 
hitherto been unable to ascertain by what name the creature 
is known to the Greenlanders. 
Although now restricted to Greenland and Arctic America 
eastward of the Mackenzie River, the musk-ox was formerly 
a circumpolar animal, its remains being occasionally met 
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