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 there is no loose fold of skin in this situation. The limbs are stout and short, terminating in unsymmetrical hoofs, the external being rounded, the internal pointed, and the sole partially covered with hair.



Musk-oxen at the present day are confined to the most northern parts of North America, where they range over the rocky Barren Grounds between lat. 64° 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 also occurs at Sabine Island on the east coast. The Greenland animal is a distinct race (O. m. wardi), distinguished by white hair on the forehand; and it is suggested that the one from Grinnell Land forms a third race. As proved by the discovery of fossil remains, musk-oxen ranged during the Pleistocene period over northern Siberia and the plains of Germany and France, their bones occurring in river-deposits along with those of the reindeer, mammoth, and woolly rhinoceros. They have also been found in Pleistocene gravels in several parts of England, as Maidenhead, Bromley, Freshfield near Bath, Barnwood near Gloucester, and in the brick-earth of the Thames valley at Crayford, Kent; while their remains also occur in Arctic America.

Musk-oxen are gregarious in habit, assembling in herds of twenty or thirty head, or sometimes eighty or a hundred, in which there are seldom more than two or three full-grown males. They run with considerable speed, notwithstanding the shortness of their legs. They feed chiefly on grass, but also on moss, lichens and tender shoots of the willow and pine. The female brings forth one young in the end of May or beginning of June, after a gestation of nine months. The Swedish expedition to Greenland in 1899 found musk-oxen in herds of varying size—some contained only a few individuals, and in one case there were sixty-seven. The peculiar musky odour was perceived from a distance of a hundred yards; but according to Professor Nathorst there was no musky taste or smell in the flesh if the carcase were cleaned immediately the animals were killed.

 MUSK-RAT, or, the name of a large North American rat-like rodent mammal, technically known as Fiber zibethicus, and belonging to the mouse-tribe (Muridae). Aquatic in habits, this animal is related to the English water-rat and therefore included in the sub-family Microtinae (see ). It is, however, of larger size, the head and body being about 12 in. in length and the tail but little less. It is rather a heavily-built animal, with a broad head, no distinct neck, and short limbs, the eyes are small, and the ears project very little beyond the fur. The fore-limbs have four toes and a rudimentary thumb, all with claws; the hind limbs are larger, with five distinct toes, united by short webs at their bases. The tail is laterally compressed, nearly naked, and scaly. The hair much resembles that of a beaver, but is shorter; it consists of a thick soft underfur, interspersed with longer stiff, glistening hairs, which overlie and conceal the former, on the upper surface and sides of the   