1 66 THE OX AND ITS KINDRED 
along the curve 4 feet 8 inches. This specimen is inter- 
mediate between the two examples of the same 
breed catalogued in Mr. Rowland Ward's Records of 
Big Game^ in one of which the expanse is 8 feet 
7-J- inches, while in the other it is 8 feet 4 inches. The 
length of the horns in the first of the catalogued 
specimens is, however, much greater than in the 
museum example, namely, 7 feet 3 inches. 
The skull of the Ngami ox is characterised not 
only by the marked backward sweep of the long, 
slender, and outwardly-directed horns, but also by 
the ridged or roof-like form of the bones of the 
forehead. This sloping away of the frontal bones 
from either side of a median longitudinal ridge is 
a feature common to the skull of the Ngami ox 
and to that of an extinct ox from the upper 
Tertiary rocks of the Siwalik Hills of northern 
India. From the presence of this peculiarity I 
described the latter many years ago as a distinct 
species, under the name of B. acutifrons^\ but I am 
now of opinion that the feature is connected with the 
backward sweep of the horns, and consequently that 
it may have no specific value. Further confirmation 
of this is afforded by the circumstance that a skull 
presenting the same feature has been discovered by 
Professor F. C. Ewart among ox-skulls of a more 
ordinary type from a deposit of Roman age at New- 
stead, near Edinburgh. 
Long-horned cattle are also found in Madagascar, 
those in the west coast districts presenting a marked 
similarity to the East African Watusi breeds. 
In South Africa the Hottentots formerly possessed 
^ Paheontologia Indica [MefH. Geo I. Survey of India), Calcutta, 
ser. X. vol. i. p. 122, 1878. 
