WILD OXEN, SHEEP, AND GOATS OF ALL LANDS,
LIVING AND EXTINCT
I n the Deer o f A ll Lands, to which the present volume is intended as a
companion, it has been stated that the family Bovidce, or Hollow-horned
Ruminants, form a group of the section Pecora, i® | which are also
included the Prong-buck, or Antilocaprida; the Giraffes, or Girajfidce; and
the Deer, o f: Cervidce. . And s# the distinctive features of the Pecora
have been mentioned'in that volume, it is unnecessary that they should
be recapitulated here.
All the existing wild members o f the great family Bovidce are readily
characterised by the po4sj|sion of a pair o f bony appendages to the skull,
clothed during life with hollow unbranched horns which are never
shed, but grow continuously at the base, while their summits become
more or less abraded and rounded by wear and tear. Although in many
members of the family these appendages are confined to the males, in
almost all of those forming the subject of the present volume they are
developed in both sexes, although frequently much smaller in the females
than in the males.
The presence of these unbranched horns thus suffices to distinguish
the members of the family not only from the Deer and Giraffes, but
likewise from the Prong-buck, in which the horns, although of the same
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