BOVIDAE, the name of the family of hollow-horned rumi nant mammals typified by the common ox (Bos taunts), and specially characterized by the presence on the skulls of the males or of both sexes of a pair of bony projections, or cores, covered in life with hollow sheaths of horn, which are never branched, and at all events after a very early stage of existence are permanently retained. The group is often called Cavicornia. For other char acteristics see PECORA. The Bovidae comprise numerous genera and species, and include the oxen, sheep, goats, antelopes (qq.v.) and others which come under none of these designations. In stature they range from the size of a hare to that of a rhinoceros; and their horns vary in size and shape from the small and simple spikes of the oribi and duiker antlers to the enormous and various ly shaped structures borne respectively by buffaloes, wild sheep and kudu and other large antelopes. In geographical distribution the Bovidae present a remarkable contrast to the deer tribe, or Cervidae. Both of these families are distributed over the whole of the northern hemisphere, but whereas the Cervidae are absent from Africa south of the Sahara and well represented in South America, the Bovidae are unknown in the latter area, but are extraordinarily abundant in Africa. Neither group is represented in Australasia, Celebes being the eastern limit of the Bovidae. The present family doubtless originated in the northern half of the Old World, whence it effected an entrance by way of the Bering Strait route into North America, where it has always been but poorly represented in the matter of genera and species.
The Bovidae are divided into a number of sections, or sub families, of which fuller mention of some of the more important representatives is made in other articles.
The first section is that of the Bovinae, which includes buffaloes, bison and oxen. The majority of these are large and heavily built ruminants, with horns present in both sexes, the muzzle broad, moist and naked, the nostrils lateral, no face-glands, and a dewlap often developed in the males; the tail is long and generally tufted. The horns are of nearly equal size in both sexes, are placed on or near the vertex of the skull, and may be either rounded or angulated, while their direction is more or less out wards, with an upward direction near the tips, and conspicuous knobs or ridges are never developed on their surface. The tall upper molars have inner columns. The group is represented throughout the Old World as far east as Celebes, and has one living North American representative. (See ANOA, AUROGHS,