Nemorhædus.[236]—Horns rounded, gradually recurving, without distinct hook at the end. Suborbital gland small or wanting; ears large; skull with a large lachrymal depression, and the premaxillæ not quite reaching the nasals. Some nine species, ranging from the Eastern Himalayas to North China and Japan, and southwards to Formosa, the Malay Peninsula, and Sumatra. The smallest species is the Himalayan Goral (N. goral). Of the larger forms we may mention the Himalayan Serow (N. bubalinus) the Cambing-Utan (N. sumatrensis) of Sumatra, and the Japanese N. crispus (Fig. 144). Of the Serow, Colonel Kinloch remarks that “it is a large and powerful beast. The body is covered with very coarse hair, which assumes the form of a bristly mane on the head and shoulders, and gives the beast a ferocious appearance, which does not belie its disposition. The colour is a dull black on the back, bright red on the sides, and white underneath, the legs also being dirty white. The ears are very large, the muzzle is coarse. The Serow has an awkward gait, but in spite of this can go over the worst ground; and it has perhaps no superior in going down steep hills. It is a solitary animal, and nowhere numerous.”

Haploceros.[237]—The Rocky-Mountain Goat (Haploceros montanus), inhabiting the northern parts of California, appears to be very closely allied to Nemorhædus. The horns are somewhat compressed at the base; there is no suborbital gland; and the ears are small. The hair, which is whitish in colour, is very long, and especially abundant in the region of the throat, shoulders, flanks, and tail. The animal is about the size of a large Sheep.

Budorcas.[238]—The Takin (B. taxicolor) of the Mishmi Hills in Assam, and an allied species from Eastern Tibet, are larger forms apparently related to Nemorhædus, but with a much greater development of the horns. The horns of what is considered to be the male[239] arise from the vertex of the skull, and are nearly in contact in the middle line; they first bend outwards and downwards, and then suddenly upwards and backwards. Those regarded by Mr. Hume as referable to the female are directed at first outwards, and then gradually curve upwards and backwards, without any downward flexure or angulation. The horns of the male may be 2 feet in length, with a basal diameter of 13 inches. The muzzle is hairy, with a small naked muffle. There appear to be considerable seasonal and sexual variations in colour; the body being in some cases of a yellow dun, while in others it is a dusky, reddish-brown, with much black intermingled. The heads of large males are blackish.

Scarcely anything is known of the habits of the Takin, which never appears to have been seen alive by Europeans.

Caprine Section.—Both sexes with horns, but those of the female small. Horns usually compressed, triangular, with transverse ridges, and either curving backwards or spiral. Muzzle hairy, without naked muffle. Suborbital gland small or absent; lachrymal fossa of skull present or absent. Tail short and flattened. Foot-glands frequently present. Molars very hypsodont; those of the upper jaw being narrow, without an accessory internal column. Mainly Palæarctic, but with some outlying forms.

This section includes the Goats and Sheep, which are so closely connected that it is difficult to give well-marked generic characters that will hold good for all the species. They seem to be one of the latest developments of the Bovidæ, since they are unknown before the Pliocene period; and are essentially mountain forms.

Capra.[240]—Horns flattened from side to side, and either curving backwards (Fig. 145) or spirally twisted. No suborbital gland, and no lachrymal fossa in the skull. Foot-glands, if present, only in the fore feet. Chin more or less bearded. Males with a strong odour. Vertebræ: C 7, D 13, L 6, S 4, C 9-13. Some dozen species, ranging over all the higher mountains of Southern Europe, from Spain to the Caucasus; also found in Abyssinia, Persia, Sind, and Baluchistan, thence through the higher Himalaya, and so on to Tibet and Northern China. One outlying species occurs in the Nilgherries of Southern India.

The European Ibex or Steinbok (Fig. 145), which may be taken as a typical Goat, stands about 2½ feet in height at the shoulder. In summer the hair is short and smooth, and of an ashy-gray colour, but a long coat is developed in winter. The horns of the male rise in a bold backward sweep from the forehead, and are characterised by the strong transverse ridges on the broad and flat anterior surface. They are said to be not more than some 2 feet in length, but these dimensions are greatly exceeded by the horns of the Himalayan Ibex. The Alpine Ibex lives at a greater height than the Chamois, spending the day just at the limit of perpetual snow, and descending at night to graze at lower levels. Both this and the Himalayan species generally live in small herds of from five to fifteen or more; they are wary animals, although not so much so as many of the wild Sheep. The following list, mainly taken from two papers by Mr. Sclater,[241] gives the distribution of the various species of Goats, with some remarks on their peculiarities:—

(1) C. ibex, confined to the Alps of Switzerland, Savoy, and the Tyrol, and now nearly extinct, except where artificially preserved. (2) C. sibirica, closely allied to the preceding, but with larger horns, occurs in the Altai Mountains, and throughout the Himalaya from Kashmir to Nipal, and northward towards Turkestan. (3) C. sinaitica, of the mountains of Upper Egypt, the Sinaitic Peninsula, and Palestine, is allied to the two preceding species, but has the horns somewhat more compressed, with a difference in the ridges on the front. (4) C. caucasica, a very distinct species, confined to the Caucasus, where it inhabits the western part of the Great Caucasus; with thick horns curving backwards and outwards in one plane, with the exception of their tips, which incline inwards.[242] (5) C. pallasi is an allied species from the Eastern Caucasus, distinguished, among other features, by the curvature of the horns, which lie flatter and twist more outward from the forehead, with a greater terminal inward bend. (6) C. pyrenaica, of the Pyrenees, and the higher ranges of Central Spain, Andalusia, and Portugal, is another nearly related species. (7) C. ægagrus, formerly abundant over the Grecian Archipelago, but now restricted in Europe to Crete and some of the Cyclades, is found throughout the mountains of Asia Minor and Persia, and thence to Baluchistan and Sind. The horns are thinner and sharper in front than in the Ibexes, and this species is generally regarded as the ancestral stock of the various breeds of domestic Goats. (8) C. dorcas, a Goat from the island of Jura, near Eubœa, has been described under this name, and is apparently nearly allied to C. ægagrus. (9) C. walie, an apparently well-characterised species from the highest ranges of Abyssinia. (10) C. falconeri; the Markhoor differs from all the preceding species by the spiral twisting of its horns, which attain enormous dimensions. It occurs in the Pir-Panjal range south of Kashmir, and thence into Afghanistan and the Suleiman range, and northwards to Astor, Gilgit, and Scardo (Baltistan). The specimens from the Suleiman range have the spiral of the horns very close, somewhat as in the Eland; while in those from Astor, Gilgit, and Scardo it is very open, as in the Kudu. The Pir-Panjal race occupies a somewhat intermediate position in this respect. (11) C. jemlaica, the Thar, inhabits suitable regions along the whole range of the Himalaya from Kashmir to Bhutan. Together with the next species, it differs from the more typical Goats in its short, thick, and much compressed horns, the anterior border of which is keeled, and the moist naked muffle. There are no glands in the fore feet. It was generically separated by Gray as Hemitragus. (12) C. hylocrius, the so-called Ibex of the Nilgherries, Anamallays, and other adjoining ranges of Southern India, is an outlying species, apparently allied to the preceding, but with somewhat different horns, in which the external angle in front is much rounded off.

Of fossil Goats we have but little knowledge. Remains of C. pyrenaica are found in cave-deposits at Gibraltar; and it is not improbable that the genus is represented in the Upper Pliocene of France. Several species occur in the Pliocene of India, C. sivalensis being apparently closely allied to C. jemlaica, while another has horns resembling those of C. falconeri, and it is possible that a third may be more nearly related to the Ibexes.

Ovis.[243]—Horns curving backwards and downwards in a bold sweep, with the tips everted, generally with more or less prominent transverse ridges, and brownish in colour. Suborbital gland and lachrymal fossa usually present, but generally small. Foot-glands in all the feet. Chin not bearded;[244] males without a strong odour. Vertebræ: C 7, D 13, L 6, S 4, C 10-14. Some twelve species, mainly Palæarctic, but extending into the adjacent portions of the Oriental region, and with one outlying species in North America.

The more typical Sheep are closely connected with the Goats by the Himalayan Bharal (O. nahura) and the Aoudad (O. tragelaphus) of Northern Africa, both these species having no suborbital gland and no lachrymal fossa, while their comparatively smooth and olive-coloured horns show a decided approximation to those of the Goats. Both present, however, the ovine character of glands in all the feet. In the typical Sheep the basioccipital of the skull is wider in front than behind, with the anterior pair of tubercles widely separated and much larger than the posterior pair. The Bharal, however, resembles the Goats in having an oblong basioccipital, with the posterior tubercles larger and more prominent than the anterior ones, both being situated in the same antero-posterior line. These transitions towards the caprine type are, however, not sufficient to support the view that the Bharal should form the type of a distinct genus (Pseudois), more especially since some of the typical Sheep, like O. canadensis, have the lachrymal fossa of the skull very much reduced in size.

The distinction of the various permanent modifications under which wild Sheep occur is a matter of considerable difficulty. Trivial characters, such as size, slight variations in colour, and especially the form and curvature of the horns, are relied upon by different zoologists who have given attention to the subject in the discrimination of species, but no complete accord has yet been established. The most generally recognised forms are enumerated below.

The geographical distribution of wild Sheep is interesting. The immense mountain ranges of Central Asia, the Pamir and Thian-Shan of Turkestan, may be looked upon as the centre of their habitat. Here, at an elevation of 16,000 feet above the sea-level, is the home of the magnificent Ovis poli, named after the celebrated Venetian traveller Marco Polo, who met with it in his adventurous travels through this region in the thirteenth century. It is remarkable for the great size of the horns of the old rams and the wide open sweep of their curve, so that the points stand boldly out on each side, far away from the animal’s head, instead of curling round nearly in the same plane, as in most of the other species. A Sheep from the same region, in which the horns retain their more normal development, has received the name of O. karelini, but, according to Mr. W. T. Blanford,[245] is not distinct specifically from O. poli. Eastward and northward is found the Argali (O. argali), with a wide and not very well determined range; it formerly occurred in the Altai, but is now found in Northern Mongolia. Still farther north, in the Stanovoi Mountains and Kamschatka, is O. nivicola, and away on the other side of Behring’s Strait, in the Rocky Mountains and adjacent highlands of western North America, is the “Bighorn” or Mountain Sheep (O. canadensis), the only member of the genus found in that continent, and indeed—except the Bison, Musk-Ox, Mountain Goat (Haploceros), and the Prong-buck (Antilocapra)—the only hollow-horned Ruminant, being like the rest obviously a straggler from the cradle of its race. The two last-named species are nearly allied, and are characterised by the slight development of the ridges on their horns and the very shallow lachrymal fossa. Turning southward from the point from which we started, and still a little to the east, in Nipal and Western Tibet, is the Himalayan Argali (O. hodgsoni), having massive and strongly curved horns, with bold ridges, like those of the true Argali. Indeed, were it not for their isolated areas there would appear to be no grounds for distinguishing these two closely allied forms, and it is not improbable that they are really identical. O. brookei, appears to have been founded on a hybrid between O. hodgsoni and O. vignei. In the same districts, and also in Southern Ladak, there occurs the Bharal (O. nahura), with smaller, smoother, and more spreading horns. Passing in a south-westerly direction we find a series of smaller forms, O. vignei of Ladak, O. cycloceros of Northern India, Persia, and Baluchistan. O. gmelini of Asia Minor and Persia, O. ophion, confined to the elevated pine-clad Troodos Mountains of the island of Cyprus, and said at the time of the British occupation in 1878 to have been reduced to a flock of about twenty-five individuals, and O. musimon, the Moufflon of Corsica and Sardinia (see Fig. 146), believed to have been formerly also a native of Spain. In the three latter species the females are hornless. Lastly, we have the somewhat aberrant, Goat-like Aoudad (O. tragelaphus), of the great mountain ranges of North Africa, in which, as already mentioned, the skull and horns resemble those of the Bharal, although the tail is longer, and there is a thick fringe of long hair on the throat, chest, and fore legs.

We thus find that Sheep are essentially inhabitants of high mountainous parts of the world, for dwelling among which their wonderful powers of climbing and leaping give them special advantages. No species frequent by choice either level deserts, open plains, dense forests, or swamps. By far the greater number of species are inhabitants of the continent of Asia, one extending into North America, one into Southern Europe, and one into North Africa. No wild Sheep exist in any other part of the world, unless the so-called Musk-Ox of the Arctic regions, the nearest existing ally to the true Sheep, may be considered as one. Geologically speaking, Sheep appear to be very modern animals, or perhaps it would be safer to say that no remains that can be with certainty referred to the genus have been met with in the hitherto explored true Tertiary beds, which have yielded such abundant modifications of Antelopes and Deer. They are generally considered not to be indigenous in the British Isles, but to have been introduced by man from the East in prehistoric times. A fossil Sheep (Ovis savigni), apparently allied to the Argali, has, however, been described from the so-called Forest-bed of the Norfolk coast.

The Sheep was a domestic animal in Asia and Europe before the dawn of history, though quite unknown as such in the New World until after the Spanish conquest. It has now been introduced by man into almost all parts of the world where settled agricultural operations are carried on, but flourishes especially in the temperate regions of both hemispheres. Whether our well-known and useful animal is derived from any one of the existing wild species, or from the crossing of several, or from some now extinct species, is quite a matter of conjecture. The variations of external characters seen in the different domestic breeds are very great. They are chiefly manifested in the form and number of the horns, which may be increased from the normal two to four or even eight, or may be altogether absent in the female alone, or in both sexes; in the form and length of the ears, which often hang pendent by the side of the head; in the peculiar elevation or arching of the nasal bones in some Eastern races; in the length of the tail, and the development of great masses of fat at each side of its root, or in the tail itself; and in the colour and quality of the fleece.

Ovibos.[246]—This genus is generally considered to be a connecting link between the Caprine and Bovine sections, but should rather be regarded as an aberrant type of the former. Horns of adult male rounded, smooth, and closely approximated at their bases, where they are depressed and rugose; curving downwards, and then upwards and forwards. Muzzle caprine; no suborbital gland, no lachrymal fossa or fissure in skull; orbits tubular; a large narial aperture and very short nasals; premaxillæ not reaching nasals. Tail short, and molar teeth caprine. One existing and two fossil species, Palæarctic and Nearctic.

The animal commonly known as the Musk-Ox (Ovibos moschatus), though approaching in size the smaller varieties of Oxen, is in structure and habits closely allied to the Sheep, its affinities being well expressed by the generic name Ovibos bestowed upon it by De Blainville. The specific name, as also the common English appellatives “Musk-Ox,” “Musk-Buffalo,” or “Musk-Sheep,” applied to it by various authors, refer to the musky odour which the animal exhales. This does not appear to be due to the secretion of a special gland, as in the case of the Musk-Deer; but it must be observed that, except as regards the osteology, very little is known of the anatomy of this species. It about equals in size the small Welsh and Scotch cattle. The head is large and broad. The horns in the old males have extremely broad bases, meeting in the median line, and covering the brow and whole crown of the head. They are directed at first downwards by the side of the face and then turn upwards and forwards, ending in the same plane as the eye. Their basal halves are of a dull white colour, oval in section and coarsely fibrous; their middle part smooth, shining, and round; their tips black. In the females and young males the horns are smaller, and their bases are separated from each other by a space in the middle of the forehead. The ears are small, erect, and pointed, and nearly concealed in the hair. The space between the nostrils and the upper lip is covered with short close hair, as in Sheep and Goats, without any trace of the bare muffle of the Oxen. The greater part of the animal is covered with long brown hair, thick, matted, and curly on the shoulders, so as to give the appearance of a hump, but elsewhere straight and hanging down,—that of the sides, back, and haunches reaching as far as the middle of the legs and entirely concealing the very short tail. There is also a thick woolly under-fur, shed in the summer. The hair on the lower jaw, throat, and chest is long and straight, and hangs down like a beard or dewlap, though there is no loose fold of skin in this situation as in Oxen. The limbs are stout and short, terminating in unsymmetrical hoofs, the external one being rounded, the internal pointed, and the sole partially covered with hair.

The Musk-Ox is at the present day confined to the most northern parts of North America, where it ranges over the rocky barren grounds between the 60th parallel and the shores of the Arctic Sea. Its southern range is gradually contracting, and it appears that it is no longer met with west of the Mackenzie River, though formerly abundant as far as Eschscholtz Bay. Northwards and eastwards it extends through the Parry Islands and Grinnell Land to North Greenland, reaching on the west coast as far south as Melville Bay; and it was also met with in abundance by the German polar expedition of 1869-70 at Sabine Island on the east coast. No trace of it has been found in Spitzbergen or Franz Joseph Land. As proved by the discovery of fossil remains, it ranged during the Pleistocene period over northern Siberia and the plains of Germany and France, its bones occurring very generally in river deposits along with those of the Reindeer, Mammoth, and Woolly Rhinoceros. It has also been found in Pleistocene gravels in several parts of England, as Maidenhead, Bromley, Freshfield near Bath, Barnwood near Gloucester, and also in the lower brick-earth of the Thames valley at Crayford, Kent.

It is gregarious in habit, assembling in herds of twenty or thirty head, or, according to Hearne, sometimes eighty or a hundred, in which there are seldom more than two or three full-grown males. The Musk-Ox runs with considerable speed, notwithstanding the shortness of its legs. Major H. W. Feilden, naturalist to the Arctic expedition of 1875, says: “No person watching this animal in a state of nature could fail to see how essentially ovine are its actions. When alarmed they gather together like a flock of sheep herded by collie dog, and the way in which they pack closely together and follow blindly the vacillating leadership of the old ram is unquestionably sheep-like. When thoroughly frightened they take to the hills, ascending precipitous slopes and scaling rocks with great agility.” They feed chiefly on grass, but also on moss, lichens, and tender shoots of the willow and pine. The female brings forth a single young one in the end of May or beginning of June after a gestation of nine months. According to Sir J. Richardson, “when this animal is fat its flesh is well tasted, and resembles that of the Caribou, but has a coarser grain. The flesh of the bulls is highly flavoured, and both bulls and cows when lean smell strongly of musk, their flesh at the same time being very dark and tough, and certainly far inferior to that of any other ruminating animal existing in North America.” The carcase of a Musk-Ox weighs, exclusive of fat, above 3 cwt. On this subject, Major Feilden[247] says: “The cause of the disagreeable odour which frequently taints the flesh of these animals has received no elucidation from my observations. It does not appear to be confined to either sex, or to any particular season of the year; for a young unweaned animal, killed at its mother’s side and transferred within an hour to the stew-pans, was as rank and objectionable as any. The flesh of some of these animals of which I have partaken was dark, tender, and as well flavoured as that of four-year old Southdown mutton.”

Remains of two fossil species of this genus (O. bombifrons and O. cavifrons) have been described from Pleistocene beds in the United States, the one from Kentucky and the other from the Arkansas River. Both (if indeed they be valid species) appear closely allied to the living form.

Bovine Section.—Horns present and of nearly equal size in both sexes; in form rounded or angulated, placed on or near the vertex of the skull, extending more or less outwards, and curving upwards near the extremities; external surface comparatively smooth and never marked by prominent transverse ridges or knobs. Muzzle broad, with large naked muffle; nostrils lateral; no suborbital gland. Skull without any trace of lachrymal fossa or fissure. Tail long and cylindrical; generally tufted at the extremity, rarely hairy throughout. Males usually with a dewlap on the throat. No foot-glands. Molar teeth extremely hypsodont; those of the upper jaw with a nearly square cross-section, and a large accessory inner column.

The section is abundantly represented in the Palæarctic, Oriental, and Ethiopian regions, with one Nearctic species and an outlying and aberrant species in Celebes.

Bos.[248]—The whole of the species of Oxen were included by Linnæus in the single genus Bos, and although the species have been distributed by modern zoologists in several genera—such as Anoa, Bubalus, Bison, Poëphagus, Bibos, and Bos—the characters by which they are separated are so slight that it seems, on the whole, preferable to retain the old genus in its original wide sense. Using then the term Bos in this sense, it will include all the representatives of the section—about a dozen in number—and may be divided into several groups.

The first group includes the Buffaloes (genus Bubalus), chiefly characterised by their more or less flattened and angulated horns, which incline upwards and backwards, with an inward curve towards their tips, and are placed below the plane of the occiput, or vertex of the skull. The premaxillæ reach to the nasals, and the vomer is peculiar in being so much ossified as to join the posterior border of the palate. The back has a distinct ridge in the region of the withers; and the forehead is frequently convex. Oriental and Ethiopian region, and Celebes.

The most generalised representative of this group is the small Anoa (B. depressicornis) of Celebes, the type of the genus Anoa or Probubalus, which has the same cranial structure as in the more typical Buffaloes, to the young of which (as was pointed out by the late Professor Garrod) it presents a striking resemblance. Its colour is black; and the short and prismatic horns are directed upwards from the forehead. In the Pliocene Siwaliks of India there occur the remains of larger Buffaloes (B. occipitalis and B. acuticornis) closely allied to the Anoa, but with longer and more distinctly angulated horns. The still larger B. platyceros of the last-named deposits, in which the horns are wide-spreading and much flattened, appears to be in some respects intermediate between the preceding and following forms. The typical Indian Buffalo (Bos buffelus), which has been domesticated over South-East Asia, Egypt, and Southern Europe, is, in the wild state, a gigantic animal with enormous horns. These horns are longer, more slender, and more outwardly directed in the female than in the male; and in the former sex may have a length of more than 6 feet from base to tip. They are widely separated at their bases, the forehead is very convex, and the ears are not excessively large, and have no distinct fringe. These Buffaloes frequent swampy and moist districts in several parts of India, but it is in many instances difficult to decide whether they belong to really wild or to feral races. Very large skulls, specifically indistinguishable from those of the existing form, occur in the Pleistocene deposits of the Narbada valley in India; while an allied, if not specifically identical form, occurs in the Pliocene of the same country. There is some doubt whether B. antiquus of the Pleistocene of Algeria is most nearly related to the Indian or to the African species.

In Africa two species of Buffalo are recognised by Sir Victor Brooke,[249] namely the large B. caffer, occurring typically at the Cape, but said by this writer to range to Abyssinia, and the smaller B. pumilus, which seems to have a very wide distribution. The skulls of both these forms are shorter than in the Indian species, while the horns are also shorter, much more curved inwardly, and more approximated on the forehead. In the large typical form of B. caffer from South Africa the colour is black, the horns of the male are very thick, much reflected, and closely approximated on the forehead, where they form a helmet-like mass.[250] The large northern form described as B. æquinoctialis has the horns somewhat less thick, and thus approximates to the so-called B. pumilus.

The latter occurs typically in Western Africa, where it has also been described as B. brachyceros. In the typical form the horns are thinner and less reflected than in B. caffer, and in some specimens they are more widely separated on the forehead, and are marked at their bases by distinct rugæ. The colour is ruddy brown, inclining to rufous in one specimen. The skulls of Buffaloes from West Africa, probably referable to the form described as B. centralis, appear to connect B. pumilus with B. caffer, as shown by their larger size and the form of their horns; so that further observations are required to show whether the smaller form is really entitled to rank as a distinct species, or merely as a well-marked local race.

The second group comprises the Bisons, which are more nearly allied to the true Oxen, having similar rounded horns, but the skull being less massive, with a longer and more tapering frontal region, and a wider frontal diameter. The superior part of the forehead is transversely arched, the intercornual space elevated in the middle, the horns situated below the plane of the occiput, and the orbits more or less prominent. The premaxillæ do not extend upwards to reach the nasals. The Bisons (Fig. 148) have the body covered with short, crisp, woolly hair, while on the head and neck there is an abundance of much longer and darker hair, which forms a mane concealing the eyes, ears, and the bases of the horns. There is also a long beard beneath the chin; while a line of long hair extends from the head nearly to the tail, the latter being tufted at the extremity. The withers are much higher than the hind quarters, so that there is a kind of hump at the shoulders.

The group is represented by two species—the European and the American Bison. The former is the Bos bonasus of Linnæus, and is also identical with the Bos bison of Ray. The German name Wisent is the equivalent of the Greek Bison. The American species is the Bos americanus of Gmelin. Both species are closely allied, but the American Bison is slightly the smaller animal of the two, and is shorter and weaker in the hind quarters, with a smaller pelvis; its body is, however, more massive in front; and the hair on the head, neck, and fore quarters is longer and more luxuriant. A large bull American Bison, preserved in the Museum at Washington, stands 5 feet 8 inches in height at the withers. The European Bison appears to have been formerly abundant over a large portion of Europe in the Pleistocene period—the fossil race described as B. priscus not being specifically distinct; but at the present day it exists only in the primeval forests of Lithuania, Moldavia, Wallachia, and the Caucasus, where it is artificially preserved.

The American Bison formerly ranged over about one-third of the North American continent. Thus, to quote from Mr. Hornaday,[251] “starting almost at tide-water on the Atlantic coast, it extended across the Alleghany mountain system to the prairies along the Mississippi, and southward to the delta of that great system. Although the great plain country of the West was the natural home of the species, where it flourished most abundantly, it also wandered south across Texas to the burning plains of North-Eastern Mexico, westward across the Rocky Mountains into New Mexico, Utah, and Idaho, and northward across a vast treeless waste to the bleak and inhospitable shores of the Great Slave Lake itself.” In consequence of the settlement of the country by Europeans the area inhabited by the Bison was gradually contracted, till about 1840 one mighty herd occupied the centre of its former range. The completion of the Union Pacific Railway in 1869 divided this great herd into a southern and a northern division, the former comprising a number of individuals estimated at nearly four millions, while the latter contained about a million and a half. Before 1880 the southern herd had, however, practically ceased to exist; while the same fate overtook the northern one in 1883. In 1889 some twenty stragglers in Texas represented the last of the southern herd; while there were a few others in Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, and Dakota. A herd of some two hundred wild individuals, derived from the northern herd, is preserved by the United States Government in the Yellowstone National Park; and it is believed that some five hundred of the race known as Wood-Bison exist in British territory; but with these exceptions this magnificent species is exterminated. The multitudes in which the American Bison formerly existed are almost incredible; the prairies being absolutely black with them as far as the eye could reach, and the numbers in the herds being, as we have said, reckoned by millions. Mr. Hornaday even considers that the whole of the game in South Africa was never equal to the number of Bison on an equal area of the American prairies.

An extinct Bison from the Pleistocene of Texas, known as Bos latifrons, was probably the ancestor of the recent American species.

The Yak (Bos grunniens) appears to be allied both to the Bisons and the true Oxen, being distinguished from the former by the different position occupied by the long hair, which forms a fringe investing the shoulders, flanks, and thighs, and grows over the whole of the tail. In the skull the orbits are less tubular, the forehead flatter, and the premaxillæ less widely separated from the nasals. There is no distinct dewlap. Wild Yaks inhabit the higher regions of Chinese Tibet and the region of the Karakoram, as well as the more outlying parts of Ladak, such as the Changchemo valley. Owing, however, to incessant pursuit those now found within the territories of the Maharaja of Kashmir are stragglers from Chinese Tibet. The height of the Yak is somewhat lower than that of the larger domestic cattle. The colour of the wild race is black, tending to brown on the flanks; but many of the tame breeds which have been crossed with ordinary cattle have more or less white (Fig. 149), and it is the white tails of these half-breeds that are so esteemed in India as “chowries.” Yaks are exceedingly intolerant of heat, and the wild ones always live at very great elevations. Tame Yaks are extensively used as beasts of burden in Tibet, where they are extremely valuable in crossing the high and desolate wastes of that region; they have, however, the great drawback that they refuse to eat corn, so that in districts where there is no grass it is frequently necessary to make forced marches with wearied beasts in order to prevent them (and thus the whole party) perishing from starvation.

The skull of an extinct species from the Pliocene of Northern India, described as Bos sivalensis, appears to indicate a species allied to the Yak.

With the Bibovine group we come to the consideration of three Oriental species which connect the preceding forms with the typical Oxen. The three species are the Gaur (B. gaurus) the Gayal (B. frontalis, Fig. 150) of India, and the Banteng (B. sondaicus) of Burma, Java, Bali, and Lambok. In this group, as in the true Oxen, there are thirteen pairs of ribs, against fourteen in the Bisons. All the three species are characterised by the great height of the spines of the anterior dorsal vertebræ, causing a prominent ridge down the back. The horns, which are of a greenish colour in the Gaur, are somewhat flattened, and after running outwards are directed upwards instead of backwards; they occupy the vertex of the skull. The frontals are more or less concave, the premaxillæ do not join the nasals, and the occipital aspect of the skull is characterised by the deep incisions made by the temporal fossæ. The lower part of the legs is white (Fig. 150), and the hoofs are comparatively small and pointed. The Gaur (B. gaurus) is the largest of the three species, and inhabits all the large forests of India from near Cape Comorin to the foot of the Himalaya; it is commonly known to sportsmen as the Indian Bison. It stands fully 6 feet in height at the withers, which are much elevated; and since the whole back is arched the line from the nose to the root of the tail forms an almost continuous curve. The most characteristic feature of the animal is, however, the large and convex intercornual frontal crest, which curves forward, and thus gives a concave profile to this part of the skull. As a rule the Gaur prefers hilly regions, although it is sometimes met with on the flat. It is very shy and readily frightened; and it has never been domesticated. The Gayal, or Mithan, of which a figure is given in woodcut 150, is at once distinguished from the Gaur by the straight line between the horns (which are black in colour), owing to the absence of the intercornual crest of the latter. The horns are also shorter, more rounded, and less curved. In the Indian Museum, Calcutta, there are, however, skulls which are to a great extent intermediate between those of typical Gaurs and those of typical Gayals, but these may belong to hybrids. The Gayal occurs in Assam, Chittagong, and adjacent districts, but it appears that these animals exist in a semi-domesticated condition, no wild race being known to Europeans, although it is probable that such may exist in the unexplored Mishmi Hills.

The Banteng (B. sondaicus) is a smaller and lighter built animal than either of the preceding, with a longer and sharper head, and more rounded and slender horns. The dorsal ridge is, moreover, but slightly developed; while the bright dun colour of the body of the female readily distinguishes it from the darker hue of the Gaur and Gayal.

A fossil skull from the Pleistocene deposits of the Narbada valley, India, described as Bos palæogaurus, is believed to indicate a species nearly allied to the Gaur, if indeed it be specifically distinct.

The true Oxen, or Taurine group, are now represented solely by Bos taurus and Bos indicus. Both of these species are now known only by domesticated races, unless the herds of the former preserved at Chillingham and some other British parks are the survivors of an original wild race. The dorsal ridge of the Bibovine group is here wanting; the horns are rounded, with their extremities directed backwards, and are placed at the extreme vertex of the skull; while the long frontal region is nearly flat; the temporal fossæ scarcely intrude upon the occipital aspect of the skull; and the premaxillæ reach the nasals. The hoofs are large and rounded. It is known that wild Oxen were abundant in the forests of Europe at the time of Julius Cæsar, by whom they were described as the Urus, equal to the German Aurochs; and the large skulls found in turbary and Pleistocene deposits, and described under the name of Bos primigenius, can only be regarded as having belonged to the large original race of B. taurus, of which it has been thought the Chillingham cattle are smaller descendants.[252] The subfossil skulls described as B. longifrons and B. frontosus must also be looked upon as referable to smaller races of the same species. That the domestic cattle of Europe are descendants from the various races of the same original species there can be no doubt, but in the case of the humped cattle of India (B. indicus) it is quite probable that their origin may be, at least in part, different. The extinct Bos namadicus, of the Pleistocene deposits of India, was a species with the general characters of the Taurine group, but with an inclination to a flattening of the horns, and with an approximation to a Bibovine type of occiput, as well as with the separation of the premaxillæ from the nasals.

The earliest representatives of this group occur in the Pliocene of the Siwalik Hills in Northern India. One of these species (B. planifrons) appears to be allied to B. namadicus; but the other (B. acutifrons) was a gigantic species characterised by the sharp median angulation of the frontal region, and the pyriform section of the enormous horn-cores.

The extinct B. elatus, from the Upper Pliocene of France and Italy, is the representative of a generalised type, which may be known as the Leptobovine group. The males had rounded horn-cores widely separated at their bases, and placed low down on the forehead. The females (which have been described as Leptobos) were often or always hornless. The limbs were unusually slender. This group also occurs in the Pliocene of the Siwalik Hills.

Suborder Perissodactyla.

This is a perfectly well-defined group of Ungulate mammals, represented in the actual fauna of the world by only three distinct types or families—the Tapirs, the Rhinoceroses, and the Horses—poor in genera and species, and (except in the case of the two domesticated species of Equus, which have been largely multiplied and diffused by man’s agency) not generally numerous in individuals, though widely scattered over the earth’s surface. Palæontological records, however, show very clearly that these are but the surviving remnants of a very extensive and much-varied assemblage of animals, which flourished upon the earth through the Tertiary geological period, and which, if it could be reconstructed in its entirety, would not only show members filling up structurally the intervals between the existing apparently isolated forms, but would also show several marked lines of specialisation which have become extinct without leaving any direct successors.