NAMES OF THE OX AND ITS ANCESTOR ; 
ambiguity. As indicated above, Linncxus applied 
the name Bos taui-us in his Systema Natures to 
the domesticated ox, or cattle, of Europe, of which 
the typical representative is accordingly the common 
Swedish breed. Later on, in 1827, Bojanus proposed 
the name B. primigenius ^ on the evidence of its 
fossilised remains, for the extinct European wild ox, 
which he regarded as a distinct species. Since, 
however, domesticated cattle are the direct, and in most 
cases but slightly modified, descendants of the wild 
ox, both are clearly of the same species, and the 
latter constitutes merely a race of the former, under 
the name of B. taiirus primigeniMS. 
