1350 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



improbably by a third allied to the Himalayan Ibex (C. sibirica). 

 Remains of the Pyrenean Ibex (C. pyrenaicd) are found in the 

 Pleistocene cave-deposits of Gibraltar ; and those of the common 

 Goat (C. Jurats) in the turbaries and fens of England. The very 

 remarkable hornless genus Bucapra, from the Siwaliks of India, has 

 a skull presenting a great resemblance to that of the Goats, but 

 cheek-teeth like those of the Oxen. The true Sheep (Ovis) appear 

 to be a group of very late origin, and are scarcely known in a fossil 

 condition ; a large species has, however, been described from the 

 Norfolk Forest-bed as O. (Caprovis) Savigni, which was apparently 

 allied to the existing Argali. The Musk-Ox (Ovibos) of the Arctic 

 regions, which forms a connecting link between the Caprince and 

 Bovince, occurs fossil in the Pleistocene of Europe and Alaska ; 

 while two closely allied forms, from the Pleistocene of Kentucky 

 and Arkansas, have been respectively named O. (Bootherium) bombi- 

 frons and O. cavifrons. 



The members of the Bovine section, comprising about thirteen 

 recent species distributed over the greater part of Europe, Asia, 

 Africa, and North America, agree with the Caprine section in having 

 no lachrymal vacuities, but differ from the recent members of that 

 section in having the crowns of the cheek-teeth extremely tall, with 

 large accessory columns in the upper true molars, and their valleys 

 filled up by a large quantity of cement. The horn-cores may be 

 either rounded, flattened, or angulated, and are frequently directed 

 more or less outwardly, but are never curved spirally inwards, or of 

 the " cork-screw " shape characteristic of many Goats ; while the 

 horns themselves are not marked on their anterior surface by promi- 

 nent transverse ridges. The most aberrant genus is Leptobos from 

 the Pliocene and Pleistocene of India and the Upper Pliocene of 

 Italy, in which the frontal portion is broad, with widely separated 

 horn-cores placed far below the level of the occiput. The horn- 

 cores are sometimes absent ; and this genus is regarded as allied to 

 Boselaphus. Bubalus, typically represented by the Buffaloes of India 

 and Africa, but which may also be taken to include the diminutive 

 Anoa (B. depressicornis) of Celebes, is characterised by its angulated 

 horn-cores, which may be directed either outwards or upwards, and 

 by the great convexity of the forehead in the more typical forms. 

 Among the more aberrant species may be reckoned three from the 

 Siwalik Hills of India (e.g., B. occipitalis), which are closely allied 

 to the Anoa, and (together with that species) by some writers are 

 termed Probubalus ; the horn-cores are frequently completely trian- 

 gular in section, and the forehead is not decidedly convex. B. 

 platyceros from the same deposits is intermediate between the last- 

 mentioned group and the existing Buffaloes. B. antiquus from the 

 Pleistocene of Algeria is regarded by Professor Riitimeyer as closely 



