Species of Bovine Animals. 



6427 



with its head downwards, and one of its horns had penetrated deep into 

 the blue clay which formed the bottom under the turf."* 



A middle-sized European taurine is named Bos frontosus by Pro- 

 fessor Nilsson. Its remains "are found in turf-bogs in Southern 

 Scania, and in such a state as plainly shows that they belonged to a 

 more ancient period than that in which tame cattle existed in this 

 country [Sweden]. This species has lived in Scania contempora- 

 neously with the Bos primogenius and Bison europseus ; that it has 

 also been found in England is shown by a cranium in the British 

 Museum. As with us it belongs to the country's oldest 6 post-pliocene 

 Fauna.' * * * If ever it was tamed, and thereby in the course of 

 time contributed to form some of the tame races of cattle, it must have 

 been the lesser large growth, small-horned and often hornless, which 

 is to be found in the mountains of Norway, and which has a high pro- 

 tuberance between the setting on of the horns above the nape." 



A third is the Bos longifrons of Owen, small and of slender build, 

 and elaborately described by Nilsson. Found in turf-bogs, and in 

 relatively older beds, together with bones of elephant and rhinoceros. 

 Professor Owen thinks it probable that the small shaggy Highland and 

 Welch cattle ("kyloes" and " runts"), with short or often no horns, 

 are the domesticated descendants of Bos longifrons. f 



Professor Nilsson sums up by remarking that, et We believe we come 

 nearest to the truth in this difficult subject, if we assume — 



" 1. That the large-sized lowland races, with flat foreheads, and for 

 the most part large horns, descend from the urus ( Bos primogenius 



* According to Colonel C. Hamilton Smith, " the bull-fights in Spain originated 

 in the chase of the wild urus ; and a Celtiberian vase, with an undeeyphered Celti- 

 berian inscription, represents the animal and its hunter." The Spanish bull-fights are 

 generally supposed to have descended from the Roman combats of the circus. 



f Within the last two or three years we have read in one of the scientific periodi- 

 cals, but just now have sought in vain for the notice, of a quantity of bones that were 

 dug up in some part of England, together with other remains, of what seemed to be 

 the relics of a grand feast, held probably during the Roman domination of Britain (if 

 we mistake not, some Roman coins were found associated). There were skulls and 

 other remains of Bos longifrons, quite undistinguishable in form from the antique fos- 

 sil, whether wild or domesticated, which of course remains a question; but Cuvier 

 figures, in his 'Ossemens Fossiles,' the skull of a small Scottish Highland ox (as we 

 take it to be), which can scarcely be other than a domesticated descendant of that par- 

 ticular aboriginal species. We also happen to possess a drawing of the skull of a 

 small Highland bull, with descending horns, as in Cuvier's figure, which we have no 

 hesitation in referring to the antique species. If we mistake not, the discovery of the 

 quantity of boues above mentioned, is recorded in the first volume of the ' Proceedings* 

 of the Linuean Society,' which does not happen to be available to us just now. 



