894 Hornless Ruminants. [0t 
sometimes devoid of horns, as may be seen in a specimen pointed 
out to me by Dr. Forsyth Major, in the Museum of Florence” 
And this is his comment: “It seems very likely that horns wert 
originally a mere sexual character peculiar to the males, and 
transferred, like other sexual characters, ultimately to the female 
‘This was brought about before the beginning of the Plistocene 
age, since all the oxen of that period possessed horns. If this 
view of the origin of horns be accepted, it is easy to explain th 
singular ease with which, in a comparatively short time, the horas 
have been bred off some of our domestic cattle by selection cat- 
tied on through a few generations; and our polled cattle may hy r 
looked to as a reversion to an ancestral type. The small si z 
also of the tusks of the domestic hog, compared with those € 4 
the wild boar, may be explained in the same manner.”* : 
Falconer describes B. etruscus (“ Pal. Mems., vol. ii. p. 481) "i 
“so peculiar as to distinguish it very remarkably from Bos Mo 
genius and Bos priscus (the bison). It is of much smaller s% 
and, I suspect, constitutes a distinct undescribed species, ao 
whose designation Bos etruscus would appear appropriate.” $ 
Darwin, who only touches incidentally on the subject of hei 
less ruminants, makes reference to the skull of this hornless Bas j : 
etruscus, seeming to regard it as that of a female. $ 
Figures of Polled Cattle on Greek and Roman Coins, B.C.400-. 
The Greek and Roman (fac-simile) coins in the British Museet 
are arranged in such a manner as to afford a synoptical Ww 
Once historical and geographical, of the gold and silver cols 
of the ancient world, from the invention of the art of a" 
(about B.c. 700) down to the Christian era. os ae q 
In the first compartment, relating to the First Period, p 
B.C. 700-480, or the period of Archaic Art, ending with the Po 
wars, in the third (geographical) section, —coins of Italy, 9% 
the southern shores of the Mediterranean, and Western Europ 
5 No. 30, described thus in the catalogue: . 
p 30. Messana t ta ' s. Head of lion, ace 
‘ev. MESSEN ION. ber tet Owe 267.1 grs. Ne 
Se or Miletus, B.c. 494, a band of Samians sailed © ~ g 
and, under the advice of Anaxilaus of Rhegium, seized e 
of Zancle. Anaxilaus soon afterwards sent a mixed ¢? ye 
Zancle, and changed its name to Messana. The sama? : é 
* Early Man in Britain. 
