Page:Natural History (1848).djvu/209

Rh the other hand, the Cow and Ox of the domestic ‘species, are often remarkable for the quiet gentle- ness of their physiognomy.

The Oxen are social in their habits, and some are gregarious, associating in immense herds&#59; as the Bison of the American prairies. Limited as is the Family, every part of the world has some indigenous species, with the exception of South America and Australia&#59; and in these the domestic race introduced by Europeans has already spread in herds in an emancipated condition.

The characters already given as distinguishing the Family Bovidæ, may be considered. as those of its only genus, Bos, for though the Musk- Ox of Arctic America does approach the Sheep more closely than the other Oxen, there do not appear to us sufficient differences to constitute it a separate genus. ‘The principal distinctions of this species, which has been named Ovibos moschatus, are, that the horns are very broad at their base, hang down by the sides of the head, and turn up at the points&#59; the muzzle is not naked &#59; the tail and ears are very short&#59; the hair is long and woolly.

On the other hand, the typical Oxen have the horns simply curved upwards, or slightly turned outwards at the tips, the muzzle naked, the tail and ears rather long, and the hair for the most part straight, short and close.

"Of all the animals," observes Mr. Bell, "which have been reduced into the immediate service of man, the Ox is, without exception, that to which