cal Society, and to the Officers of the
Zoological Department of the British Museum, my sincere thanks are due
for the kindness and promptness with which every information has been
given, and every facility afforded to my inquiries and investigations.

With respect to the engraved figures, I have striven to produce correct
delineations of form and texture, rather than to make pretty pictures by
sacrificing truth and nature for the sake of ideal beauty and artistic
effect.

I cannot conclude this Preface without expressing my thanks to Messrs.
ADLARD for the first-rate style in which this volume has been printed;
particularly for the successful manner in which the impressions of the
engravings have been produced, superior, in general, to India-proof
impressions.

_King Street, Camden Town;_
_May, 1851._

ADDENDUM.

PENNANT--BUFFON--GOLDSMITH--BEWICK--BINGLEY.

In addition to the critical remarks on the writings of others, on this
subject, which the reader will find in the following pages, I have
further to observe that, although Pennant and Buffon have held a very
high character, for many years, as scientific naturalists, the portion
of their works which treats of the _Genus Bos_, appears to have been the
result of the most careless and superficial observation. With the
exception of the facts and observations furnished by such men as
Daubenton and Pallas, Buffon's works are little more than flimsy
speculations. As to Pennant's history of the Ox Tribe, it is calculated
rather to bewilder than to inform; it is, in fact, an incoherent mass of
dubious statements, huddled together in a most inextricable confusion:
as a piece of Natural History it is absolutely worse than nothing.

Goldsmith, Bewick, and Bingley, three of our most popular writers on
Natural History, appear to have done little more than compile from
Pennant and Buffon, and consequently are but little deserving of credit.
These strictures apply exclusively to such portions of their works as
relate to the Ox Tribe.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Page

Introduction 1

American Bison 21

Aurochs 40

Yak 45

Gyall 51

Gayal 57

Domes