DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 



267 



and Holland races. This wild species persisted in Germany 

 until the i2th century and in Poland up to the i8th century. 

 A few persons in America have tried to create a hybrid race 

 by crossing domestic cattle with the buffalo but probably 

 no permanent result has been reached. It is a pity that our 

 American bison could not have left us more of a heritage 

 than a shameful memory. 



FIG. 141. The Banteng, Bos sondaicus, or wild ox of Java and South 

 Asia. (After Keller.) 



The domesticated races of sheep seem to have had three 

 original wild sources, the Ovis musimon of South Europe, 

 the Ovis arkal of Western Asia and the Ovis tragelaphus of 

 North Africa. Most of our present European and American 

 races come from the second named of these wild kinds. 

 The earliest certain remains of tame sheep appear in the 

 Stone Age. In the Bronze Age sheep domestication was 

 well developed. The oldest of Assyrian drawings picture 

 domesticated sheep, among which the still persisting fat- 

 tailed race appears. The Egyptians had domesticated 

 sheep in pre-Pharaonian times. 



Our goats also are descended from three wild races, 

 namely Capra aegagrus of Western Asia, Capra falconeri 



