The Age of the Woburn Abbey Musk-Ox

Abstract

IN the notice of the young musk-ox at Woburn Abbey which appeared in NATURE of May 16 it was stated that the animal was considerably more than two years of age when the photograph was taken. This age was assigned on account of a statement made by Dr. Allen in his recent memoir on the Greenland and American musk-oxen that the Woburn specimens must have been yearlings when they were first photographed in 1899. His reason for making that statement were that a young calf captured at Fort Conder in May, 1899, had a black face, instead of the white-spotted faces of the Woburn animals; and that the latter had consequently changed their coats. Now the Woburn specimens were captured on Clavering Island on August 16 of that year, and from information that has recently been supplied to me it seems almost certain that they were calves of that year, probably born the preceding April or May. If this be so, and if calves have black faces when first born, it would seem that the Woburn specimens had already changed their first coats when shipped for England during the late summer, a photograph of them having been taken on board ship showing the white faces. It thus appears that when the photograph reproduced in NATURE was taken, the animal was not more than two years old, and possibly rather less.