104 
ORDERS OF MAMMALS— HOOFED ANIMALS 
ia captivity with a feeling of wonder, as if it were 
a creature from another world. There are times, 
also, when I wonder whether many of the visit- 
ors who see them quietly munching their clover 
hay, appreciate the effort that has been put forth 
to capture them in the remote and desolate re- 
gions of the far North, keep them alive, and bring 
them to civilization for public exhibition. 
The Musk-Ox is one of the strangest of all our 
large animals, and its appearance is so odd and 
striking that when once seen by an observant 
person it is not easily forgotten. In it one sees 
an oblong mass of very long and wavy brown 
hair, \\ feet high by 61 feet long, supported upon 
YOUNG FEMALE MUSK-OX. 
Ill the New York Zoological Park, 1902. 
very short and post-like legs that are half hidden 
by the sweeping pelage of the body. The three- 
inch tail is so very small and short it is quite 
invisible. There is a blunt and hairy muzzle, 
round and shining eyes, but the ears are almost 
invisible. 
The whole top of the head is covered by a pair 
of horns enormously flattened at the base, and 
meeting each other in the centre line of the fore- 
head. From the meeting point they sweep 
downward over the edge of the cranium, close to 
the cheeks, but finally recurve upward before 
coming to a point, like the waxed mustache of 
a boulevardier. 
The iris of the Musk-Ox is of a chocolate brown 
color, the pupils are elongated, and bluish-purple. 
The lips and tip of the tongue are also bluish- 
purple. 
The outer hair is a foot or more in length, and 
often touches the snow when the animal walks. 
In the middle of the back is a broad “saddle- 
mark,” of shorter, dull-gray hair. Next to the 
body is a woolly coat of very fine, soft, light brown 
hair, very clean, and so dense that neither cold 
nor moisture can penetrate it. This is for 
warmth. The longer and coarser hair that grows 
through it is the storm-coat, to shed rain and 
snow. Our first Musk-Ox began to shed its 
woolly under-coat on April 10. On April 26, it 
was loose all over the body, and beginning to 
hang in rags; therefore, for both the comfort 
and the appearance of the animal, we threw her 
upon the ground, held her securely, and combed 
it all out. It was very fine, curly, free from oil, 
and the entire mass weighed six pounds. 
Although known for more than a century, the 
Musk-Ox is one of the last of the large land mam- 
mals of the world to come into captivity for pub- 
lic exhibition, and it was not until 1900 that its 
soft anatomy was studied for the first time. 
Anatomically, this animal presents a few 
sheep-like features. By some writers their im- 
portance has been so much exaggerated that the 
name “Musk-Sheep” has been proposed as a 
substitute for Musk-Ox. But the sheep-like 
characters are insignificant in comparison with 
those that are clearly ox-like. 1 
Two species have been described. That of the 
Barren Grounds of the mainland of North Amer- 
ica has long been known as Ovibos moschatus. 
In 1901, the animal of Greenland and northern 
Grinnell Land was described as Ovibos wardi, the 
White-Fronted Musk-Ox, because of a band of 
gray or dirty-white hair, extending across the top 
of its head. 
Although this animal is called a Musk-Ox, it 
has neither the odor nor taste of musk, and its 
flesh is excellent food. General Greely, Com- 
mander Peary and many other explorers have 
feasted on its flesh. In their native desolation, 
these animals go in herds of from twenty to fifty 
head, are easily brought to bay by dogs, and 
under such circumstances they stupidly stand 
1 See E. Lonnberg, on the Anatomy oj the Musk-Ox, 
in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of Lon- 
don, 1900. 
