28 
THE OX AND ITS KINDRED 
wider sense of that term, are heavily built and for the 
most part large animals, carrying the moderately long 
neck nearly in the line of the back, with long, straight 
faces, terminating in broad, naked, and moist muzzles, 
in which are perforated the nostrils, and the skull of 
both sexes of the existing species (with the exception 
of the so-called "polled" domesticated breeds) carrying 
horns. These horns, which may be either cylindrical 
or triangular, are usually curved more or less 
upwards, forwards, and outwards, and finally in- 
wards, but extend nearly straight outwards in one 
race of the Indian buffalo, and in the dwarf buffalo, 
or anoa, of Celebes, rise obliquely upwards and out- 
wards without any distinct curvature. In the more 
typical members of the group, like the ox, the 
horns, which are more or less nearly cylindrical, are 
comparatively smooth ; but in the buffaloes they are 
triangular and marked near the base by transverse 
ridges. In no case, however, have they the fine 
transverse wrinkling found in those of most wild 
sheep, or the knobs characteristic of ibex and, in a 
less degree, the wild goat. Neither are they ever 
twisted into a corkscrew-like spiral, as in certain 
antelopes and one kind of wild goat. The two horns 
are situated far apart from one another at their bases, 
and rise on or near the vertex of the skull, but in 
several of the races of the African buffalo they are 
expanded at their bases into a large helmet-like mass 
almost completely covering the upper part of the 
forehead. 
The neck, which, as already mentioned, is carried 
nearly in the line of the back, is deep, and the throat 
frequently furnished with a large dewlap. In the ox 
itself the back is nearly straight and the body deep, 
