or Zoological Recollections. 393 



pose.* Of a person whom it is intended not to encourage 

 or spare, it is said, that we make no bones of him. 



The stealers of cattle have an ingenious method of twisting 

 the horns of these in a direction so contrary to their natural 

 position as to make it impossible that they can be identified 

 by their owners. The cattle are concealed in caves under 

 ground, and hot loaves of bread fastened successively on the 

 horns, the heat and moisture of which soon render them mal- 

 leable, when they are turned in any direction, and afterwards 

 fixed and stiffened in their new position by cold water. 



The age of a cow is known by the horns, reckoning three 

 years for the first circular wrinkle, and one for every ad- 

 ditional wrinkle. It is remarkable that the Comte de Buffon, 

 generally so accurate, should assert that the cow sheds her 

 horns every three years. 



The ox, when alive, is the only horned quadruped which 

 lends his labours to the service of man, except the rein-deer ; 

 furnishing him also with the substantial luxuries of milk, 

 cream, butter, cheese, and whey: and, besides its national 

 [" the roast beef of old England "] and nourishing food, when 

 dead, almost every part is convertible into some useful pur- 

 pose. The skin makes a durable leather, useful for shoes, 

 boots, and numberless conveniences of life ; and the fisher- 

 men of Wales, Scotland, and some parts of Ireland still make 

 use of the ancient coracle, or leather boat, the ribs of which 

 are made of osiers, and covered with the hide of a bull. 

 Vellum is made of calves' skins ; and Limerick gloves of 

 the skin of such calves as are just dropped. The hair is 

 mixed with lime as a necessary cement for mortar. The 

 chippings of the hoofs, and fragments of the skin, make glue. 

 Goldbeater's skin is made of the fine membrane which invests 

 the larger intestines. Rennet for curdling the milk is made 

 of the salted stomach of the calf, f Of the horns are made 

 combs, spoons, powder-flasks, boxes, the handles of knives, 



[* "What is the number of the animals of all kinds annually put to death 

 in Great Britain, for the sake of their bodies as food for human beings ? 

 This question was first incited in me by seeing a tanner superintending the 

 preparation of a sufficient quantity of hair off the skins of animals, chiefly 

 or wholly oxen, I presume, to cover a space of greensward of perhaps six 

 poles by four. Men were turning this quantity over, and breaking asunder 

 " the knotty and combined locks " which they found in it j exposing it to 

 the drying action of the air j and apparently endeavouring to get it free 

 of lime which adhered to it. In the evening they collected it into conical 

 heaps like little haycocks.] 



[f Ineptly called the " calf's bag " by the calf jobbers of Essex, and the 

 dairywives of Cambridgeshire, and, perhaps, by others. The term " calf's 

 bag " gives those who only passingly hear the matter mentioned the idea 

 that the embryo milk bag of female calves is meant.] 



