heavily wrinkled, angular and compressed, by deer-like tails, no beard nor mane nor caudal disc. Type, Ovis Musimon.

The Moufflon. Habitat Corsica, Sardinia.

N. B. The Mufle' is the naked moist skin round the end of the upper lip and nostrils, seen in perfection in the Ox. The 'eye-pits' are slits or punctures on the cheek, just below the eye. They are round or linear and elongate: and, if the latter, are curved or straight and can be turned almost inside out, or are partially or wholly immobile. The feet-pits' are punctures in front of the pastern, in the cleft between the two bones. The groin-pits' are fissures in the groin more or less definite in outline, and furnished with glands which secret a fragrant viscid substance very like the secretion of the other sinuses. The calcic glands' are placed on the stifle, inside and outside, or only the one, and are often naked and tumid externally. There is a whorl or callous nude spot in many quadrupeds at its side.

The tail gland' of the Musks is very large and covers the whole tail nearly, and has a linear longitudinal pore on each side, and an abundant secretion.

The preputial gland' of the Musks is analogous to that of the civets and screwtails (Paradoxurus, vulgo Málwa.) It is placed on the prepuce, the penis opening in the midst of it. This organ is clearly subservient to sexual purposes, and so probably are several of the others, though the eye-pits have been variously referred to the facilitation of breathing and of smelling. The supposed end of the interdigital gland and pore or feet-pits, viz., the lubrication of the foot and preservation of the hoof in hot sandy deserts, is clearly erroneous, since the Thár has these organs of enormous size in all 4 extremities, though it be the tenant of moist cool mountain forests. It is probable that the secretion from the foot pores enables these animals to find one another in those wildernesses of vast forest trees and dense undergrowth which constitute their range.

The shape of the orifice and of the gland, and the nature of the secretion from the latter, as well as the periodical augmentation thereof, should be closely attended to--and that generally, or with reference to all these pits or sinuses. The distinctive form of the upper outline of the scull, and character of the core of the horns, in the Antelopidæ or Antelope kind, and in the Capride or Goat and Sheep kind, and again

in the Deer kind and Ox kind, the subjoined sketches (See Plate) will best make me understood; and I would suggest particular attention to this point as a key, as well to the mutual affinities, as to the differential characters of all these groups. The Antelopes are thus clearly separated from the Goats and Sheep, and distributed into two groups of their own, one that of the more typical genera which class with the Flocks; the other, that of the abnormal genera, which range with the Herds.— I meddle not with the last named group or Bovine Antelopes (Busdorcidae) but in regard to all the others, inclusive of the Musks whose Cervine affinities are thus made palpable, I beg of you to examine well the sketches and to note the signal and abrupt fall of the posteal plane of the sculls in the Caprine and Bovine Families, and its gentle slope in the Cervine and Antelopine Families. The Antelopine scull depicted is that of the Thár, and you may thus satisfy yourself at once that this type (as well as Kemas which agrees* with Nemorhœdus in this important point) is an Antelopine, not Bovine type. In like manner-that is by attending to the form of the scull and the consequent position of the condyles-you may obtain demonstration of the Caprine affinities of Hemetragus; and, in fact, the whole genera of these perplexing families may thus be set in order.

I now proceed to the Bovines or Ox kind.

Hoofs cloven. Occipital plane of scull forming a large angle with frontal plane. Horns hollow, persistent, sheathed, with a thick cellular core springing laterally from the apex of the forehead.† Mufle large. Front teeth, above none. Below 8. Canines none? Molars . Teats 4. Dewlap present or wanting.

* The agreement is not close, so that Goral is osculant towards the Capride. The characters of both were printed by me (Journal, Sept. 1835) a year and quarter before Mr. Ogilby, (Dec. 1836, Zool. Jour.)

+ These marks of the family may be supposed exclusive to the subfamily: but I apprehend not, and that they will serve usefully to sunder the antelopes allied to Bos and those not so allied, or Antelopidæ and Busdorcinæ.

I

THE LIBRARY
OF THE

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

BOVINE or OX KIND.

Gauádi.

Occipital plane of the scull forming a large angle with the frontal plane. Core of the horns massive and very porous or cellular. Horns in both sexes, inserted laterally on the apex of the frontal crest. Canines none. Mufle very large. Teats invariably 4. Dewlap, in most, normally. No eye-pits. No feet-pits. No groin-pits.

Cranium moderate, compressed, proportional, or without excess in the cerebral or facial region. Frontals shorter than the face, flat, and not broader than long.

Occipital plane of the scull square, never arched along the ridge line, nor indented by the temporal pits, smaller than the frontal plane and forming an acute angle therewith.

Condyles of great foramen and of lower jaw, elevated greatly, and the jaw much curved.

Horns attached to the highest line of the forehead, rounded, curved up or down or forward ascendantly.

2.

Orbits not salient.

Thirteen pair of ribs.

No true dorsal ridge, but sometimes a fleshy hump.

Mufle very large and square..

Dewlap great.

Type. Bos domesticus.

Genus GAVEUS.

Gavi or Gabi.

Gau.

Cranium large, having the ample flat forehead as long as the face and broader than long, but not ridged nor curved along its crest.

Occipital plane equal to the frontal plane and moderately indented subcentrally by the temporal fosses, square and forming an acute angle with the frontal plane.

Condyles of great foramen and of lower jaw low, and the jaw little

bent.

Orbits not salient.