454 Illustrations of the Genera of the Bovin<e. [No. 1 14. 



The prime characteristics of No. 1, or the scull of the Gouri, are 

 enormous size, (above a third greater than that of the ox) ; more than 

 proportionate massiveness or weight (being treble that of the ox) ; and 

 lastly, great breadth, without marked deficiency of correspondent height 

 or length. The greatest width of the frontals, between the extreme 

 bases of the horns, is to the length as 14 to 9| ; but the greatest width 

 between the extreme margins of the orbits is to the length only as 11 to 

 9f . At first sight the frontals, exclusive of their crest, look flat ; but they 

 are really somewhat concave, and that, as well across between the very 

 salient orbits, as longitudinally between the arched nasals, and the com- 

 mencement of their own crest. That crest is most remarkable : it 

 occupies the whole breadth of the bases of the horns and ascends nearly 

 2 inches above them, in a bold transverse arch. From the plane of the 

 forehead it rises with a slight declination backwards, has a round edge 

 on the crest, and thence falls perpendicularly upon the parallel plane of 

 the occiput of which it constitutes (with the entirely merged parietes) 

 above one half. The posteal plate of the scull thus becomes of an 

 extreme size, being in depth to the lower edge of the condyles of the 

 great foramen, longer or deeper, than the anteal plane of the frontals, 

 great as the latter is. Another feature of the posteal plane is the very 

 deep indentation of the temporal fossae, which cut half in two the 

 superior, pseudo-occipital or cristate, and the inferior or truly occipital 

 portions of the posteal plane. 



y Of the trigonal ridge, which, in the Bisons, bounds superiorly the 

 parietals, there is no trace, and very little of the true transverse ridge of 

 the occiput which commonly limits the parietes inferiorly. With regard to 

 shape, the occipital plane is neither square or semi-circular, but rather ! if 

 you exclude the interruption made by the temporal fossae, spheroidal between 

 the incurved salient alee of the condyles below, and the bold transverse ar- 

 cuation of the crest above ; and if you include that interruption, bi-elliptic 

 or composed of two oblate rounded figures of an ovoid or elliptical out- 

 line, and lying, one above the other, transversely to the scull, the upper 

 or pseudo-occipital portion being the larger. The facial portion of the 

 scull is equal in length to the frontal portion : the orbits are very salient 

 and cervine, with rapid contraction of the head's breadth before them 

 towards the nasals, which are of ample length and exhibit an arched 

 form both lengthwise and across. The breadth of the intermaxillaries 

 is moderate, in the position of the muzzle, which in the living animal 

 is small ; and though the nasals are produced much to the front, yet 

 the lateral solution of continuity in the bones towards the malars 



