86 CATTLE. Chap. III. 



descended from two species ; and there is no improbability 

 in this fact, for the genus Bos readily yields to domestication. 

 Besides these two species and the zebu, the yak, the gayal, 

 and the arni 47 (not to mention the buffalo or genus Bubalus) 

 have been domesticated; making altogether six species of 

 Bos. The zebu and the two European species are now extinct 

 in a wild state. Although certain races of cattle were 

 domesticated at a very ancient period in Europe, it does not 

 follow that they were first domesticated here. Those who 

 place much reliance on philology argue that they were imported 

 from the East. 48 It is probable that they originally inhabited 

 a temperate or cold climate, but not a land long covered with 

 snow; for our cattle, as we have seen in the chapter on 

 Horses, have not the instinct of scraping away the snow to 

 get at the herbage beneath. No one could behold the magni- 

 ficent wild bulls on the bleak Falkland Islands in the southern 

 hemisphere, and doubt about the climate being admirably 

 suited to them. Azara has remarked that in the temperate 

 regions of La Plata the cows conceive when two years old, 

 whilst in the much hotter country of Paraguay they do not 

 conceive till three years old ; " from which fact," as he adds, 

 " one may conclude that cattle do not succeed so well in warm 

 countries." 49 



Bos primigenue and longifrons have been ranked by nearly 

 all palaeontologists as distinct species ; and it would not be 

 reasonable to take a different view simply because their 

 domesticated descendants now intercross with the utmost 

 freedom. All the European breeds have so often been crossed 

 both intentionally and unintentionally, that, if any steri- 

 lity had ensued from such unions, it would certainly have 

 been detected. As zebus inhabit a distant and much hotter 

 region, and as they differ in so many characters from our 

 European cattle, I have taken pains to ascertain whether the 

 two forms are fertile when crossed. The late Lord Powis 

 imported some zebus and crossed them with common cattle 

 in Shropshire ; and I was assured by his steward that the 



47 Isid. Geoffroy Saint-Hi 1 aire, 49 ' Quadrupedes du Paraguay,' torn. 

 ■ Hist. Nat. Gen.,' torn. iii. 96. ii. p. 360. 



48 Idem, torn. iii. pp. 82, 91. 



