WHITE CATTLE : AN INQUIRY INTO THEIR ORIGIN, ETC. 255 



It has been noted that the oriorinal source of the cattle in the south 

 of Italy is said to be Egypt, and these are in turn said to be derived 

 from the Zebu or Bos indicus. This humped race is practically 

 white, and no wild type is known. A feral race existed in India, 

 to which reference will be made later. Murray, in his ''Geographical 

 Distribution of Mammals,'"' considers the Zebu to be the parent 

 stock of all cattle, and Riitimeyer advances the opinion that the 

 Zebu was the progenitor of Bos longifrons. The Zebu is an Eastern 

 animal, and the seat of the origin of the ox is also said to be in 

 the East, though it has generally been assigned to a part of Asia 

 not very remote from Europe. Darwin and other naturalists, 

 however, dissent from Rutimeyers and Murray's views. Yet we 

 know that Zebus and ordinary cattle breed freely, and it is a 

 matter of common observation in India that in such cross-breeds 

 the hump of the Zebu disappears. It is said that the descendants 

 of the Indian Zebu, crossed by the late Earl of Powis with English 

 cattle, were " extraordinarilv wild." The Zebu has also been 

 crossed with Devons by Mr. Parsons, These humped cattle, 

 called "Indian cows," "Indian bulls." and " Brahminy cattle," 

 are to be found in England, as far as I am aware, at Charborough 

 Park (Dorset), Dunstall Park (Stafford), Arundel Park (Sussex), 

 and Pigmaden Park (Westmoreland). A herd of these cattle, if 

 the hump be kept out of view, looks very much like our "wild 

 white breed.*' Again, the skull of the Kalmuck ox found in Russia 

 closely resembles that of the Zebu, and we have both horned and 

 hornless Zebus. The "bagoudha" of the North-West Provinces 

 in India, is simply a hornless Zebu of a dull-white colour, and in 

 Palestine we find white hornless cattle without humps that bear 

 a strong likeness to Zebus. The Zebu is the white animal of the 

 East. Oriental wild cattle, such as the Gaur, Gayal, and Banting, 

 beins in colour dark-brown or blackish to reddish-brown. Gavals 

 are kept in several English parks, I believe, Yasey makes the 

 attempt to distinguish between the Zebu and the ox by noting 

 that the former has 4 sacral and 18 caudal vertebrae, while the 

 latter has 5 sacral and 21 caudal vertebrae. But if we turn to 

 Flower's " Osteology of the Mammalia," we find in the table given 

 there that Bos taurus has only 19 caudal vertebrae, while appar- 

 ently Bos primigenius has none. Too much stress then cannot 

 be put on the number of vertebrae, Thev mav have been lost or not 



