THE LIVING WORLD. 
613 
The Musk Sheep (Ovibos moschatus) is frequently called a musk-ox, and 
naturalists are not wholly as one at to where the animal should be classed. 
Its habitat is the North Polar region, but it is rarely found and is best known 
through fossil forms, which have interest and value for the student of the suc¬ 
cession in evolutionary life. It belongs to North America and the Esquimaux 
call it the voming noak. It is long-haired, fleet, irritable and dangerous. The 
horns of the bull curve downward around the head until they reach the eyes, 
when they 
curve upward. 
Its covering 
of long, thick 
hair gives the 
appearance of 
great ampli¬ 
tude to a really 
small body. 
Its height is 
about three 
feet, and its 
length eight 
feet. It is 
amber-colored 
and during 
the summer 
it sheds its 
long fine coat. 
The musky 
odor is always 
present, but 
does not, ex¬ 
cept at certain 
seasons, im¬ 
pregnate the 
flesh. It wan¬ 
ders about in 
herds of not 
more than 
twenty or 
twenty-five 
and the bull, which plays the role of the head of the family, always keeps 
sentinels posted. The viusk sheep have deadly contests with the bulls of other 
herds and with the bears, and in the latter case the sheep are generally victo¬ 
rious. When angry the musk sheep whines like a walrus. 
HEAD OF WILD MOUNTAIN GOAT. 
UNGULATES.—GOATS. 
The Ibex, Steinbock, Steinbok, Steinbuck, Steinbuk, or Bouquetin, 
(Capra ibex), is Alpine in its habitat, and is eminent among the horn-wearing 
animals. Its color changes from the reddish-brown of summer to the grayish- 
brown of winter; the belly and the inside of the legs are white or gray; the 
