6428 



Notice of the various 



and came into Sweden with a race of people who immigrated from the 

 south and west. 



" 2. The somewhat small-growth Highland races, with high occiput, 

 and small or no horns, descend from the high-necked ox (Bos fron- 

 tosus). 



" 3. How far the small-grown hornless Finn-ko race descends from 

 the dwarf ox (Bos longifrons) may be more fully determined through 

 future investigations. 



" We can take it for a given and general rule," he adds, " that the 

 tame race is always less than the wild species from which it springs." * 

 Of this we are not so sure. Indubitably the larger breeds of 

 domestic rabbits, geese and ducks, pigeons and common fowls, vastly 

 exceed in size their wild progenitors; and the heavy dray-horse is 

 probably another instance. We therefore feel a difficulty in recon- 

 ciling even the largest races of humpless domestic cattle with the 

 gigantic urus. The probability is, that other and unknown wild 

 races have contributed to produce the domestic cattle of Europe and 

 Northern Asia, — e.g. that formerly inhabiting the Ardennes, &c. (if 

 different from the bison), even the Assyrian wild cattle, and perhaps 

 more that we know not of ; and the races so originating being now 

 variously intermingled. An exceedingly near congener of the urus, but 

 smaller, existed in the Indian fossil Bos namadicus;f and it is likely 

 that others have existed which may yet be recovered in a sub-fossil 

 state. Moreover, this supposed multiplicity of origin of the races of 

 domestic humpless cattle may serve to hint the probability of more 

 than one primal origin for the humped races, varying, as they do, so 

 immensely in size, and more or less in a few other particulars. 



The name Bos taurus, accordingly, seems to crumble to pieces like 

 Ovis aries, Capra hircus and one or two more • but will always be 

 useful in designating the aggregate of the particular domestic group, 

 as apart from the humped races, which most assuredly have no common 

 origin with the others. 



We conclude this long notice of the present group of taurines by 

 giving some measurements of large bullock-horns, which we took 

 many years ago in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, 

 London. What the horns of an ox urus might have attained to we 

 are almost afraid to conjecture. 



* Professor Nilsson's admirable treatise will be found translated in the 1 Annals 

 and Magazine of Natural History,' Second Series, vol. iv., pp. 256, 349 and 415. 



f There is a fine skull of this species at the Museum of the Geological Survey 

 Office, Calcutta. 



