NORTH AMERICAN RUMINANTS 



have been gathered for it. but not enough to complete the group 

 The Goats and Sheep are mountain dwellers, and their favorite 

 haunts are the more inaccessible parts of the higher ranges, yet 

 they have been followed by the hunter into their remotest and 

 most secluded resorts. The Sheep are exceedingly watchful and 



tcious, and these traits alone have preserved them from total 

 annihilation. They have been exterminated in the more ac< 

 sible parts of their ranges, and survive in comparatively small 

 numbers and greatly restricted areas. The Goats were originally 

 much less widely distributed in North America than-the Sheep. 



ir chief protection lies in the inaccessibility of their favorite 



since, when once discovered, their safety depends upon 



the difficulty and danger attending their pursuit rather than 



n that keen alertness so characteristic of the Mountain 



•p. 



The Musk-< )xen. or Musk-Sheep, as they sometimes are called, 

 are the only remaining members of the Ruminants to be men- 

 tioned. They are. however, neither oxen nor sheep, 



■ „. , . , , .. . Musk-Oxen. 



nor very closely allied to either, but are a very distinct 



the hollow-horne 1 section of the Ruminants, entitled to a 



distinctive name free from the implication of any such alliance. 



Like the misapplied name Buffalo for the Bison, however, and of 



in for various birds, indifferent countries, that arc not robins, 



and i other misapplied popular names, the term Musk-< )x 



'rni a foothold that it is not likely soon to be displai 



The Musk-( ).\en arc the most exclusively Arctic of all Ruminants, 



their home being the remote, treeless Barren Grounds of the far 

 th.when ition is scanty, and the ground is buried in snow 



ar. Mature has provided the animal 

 with a heavy fit soft hair and wool for its protection against 



the inclemency of the long Arctic winter. The Musk-Oxen 

 in tl • numerical decline; formerly ranging, in com- 



il times Kentucky, 



Missouri and Utah, and over a large part of Siberia I any 



and England, they no* n Grounds i 



islands north of I [ud m 

 and a narro trip on both sides of northern Greenland, 



