Bovidae

Bovidae, a family of even-toed, hollow-horned, ruminant, hoofed mammals (Artiodactyla ruminantia, Cavicornia). The sheep and antelope types form the other division of the same series. The Bovidae include the various varieties of ox (Bos), the buffalo (Bubalus), the Tibet ox (Poephagus), the bison, and perhaps also the more widely separated musk-ox (Ovibos). The limits or relative value of the different genera are somewhat doubtful, but there is no doubt that the distinctions between Bos and Ovibos are greater than those between Bos and any of the other genera or sub-genera. The term is sometimes used as equivalent to hollow-horned ruminants, but is here used (as equivalent to Bovine) to include those that remain after subtracting the sheep and antelope types (Ovina and Antelopina). The large compact hairy body, the short strong legs, the usually smooth and round curved horns, the broad snout and naked nostrils, the undivided upper lip, the absence of tear-pits and hoof-glands, the frequent dewlap, the four teats, and the more general characters of the replacement of upper front teeth by a fibrous elastic pad, of characteristic canon-bones (fused metacarpals and metatarsals), of complex stomach and cud-chewing ruminant habit, are familiar to most. In their wild state they are gregarious nomadic animals, swift of foot, eating hurriedly, masticating and digesting at leisure. They feed on grass and herbage, which seem to be collected by the tongue, held by the lower teeth, upper lip, and fibrous pad, and half bitten, half torn away by a quick movement. The hollow horns, occurring on both sexes, are formed from the skin, and simply based on a process of the forehead (frontal) bone; they obviously serve as weapons both against foes and rival fellows. The ancient and ancestral Bos primigenius, the numerous wild species such as Banteng and Gaur, the abundant varieties of domesticated cattle, the Asiatic Buffalo (Bubalus buffelus), the giant Arni (Bubalus arni), the wild and also domesticated Tibetan Yak (Poephagus grunniens), the ancient and still extant European Bison (B. europæus), the American Buffalo or Bison (B. americanus), are important forms in no way widely separated from the Bos type. But in the Musk Ox (Ovibos moschatus) the very small naked portion of the snout and the short hair-covered tail are marked, though hardly important, differences. It is often included among the sheep and goats (Ovina). Altogether there are about thirteen modern species, widely distributed in Europe, Asia, Africa, and North America. Numerous fossil forms are known from the Pliocene upwards. The utility of these forms to man, both in their wild and in their domesticated states, is too well known to require statement. The flesh, the fat, the milk, the hair, the skin, the viscera, bones, horns, dung, &c. are in common use, and the animals themselves have in many cases become beasts of burden. See CATTLE, and other separate articles.