MAMMALIA-OX. 389 



down, that they are almost pendent. It even appears, that we must divide 

 this first kind of bisons, or hunched oxen, into two secondary kinds ; the 

 one very large, and the other very small. Both have soft hair, and a hunch 

 on the oack. This hunch does not depend on the conformation of the spine, 

 nor on the bones of the shoulder ; it is nothing but an excrescence, a kind 

 of wen, a piece of tender flesh, as good to eat as the tongue of an ox. The 

 wens of some oxen weigh about forty or fifty pounds ; others have them 

 much smaller. Some of these oxen have also prodigious horns for their 

 size. There is one in the French king's cabinet, which is three feet and 

 a half in length, and seven inches in diameter at the base. Many travellers 

 affirm, they have seen them of a capacity sufficient to contain fifteen and 

 even twenty pints of water. 



On the contrary, all the northern countries of Africa and Asia, and Europe 

 entirely, comprehending even the adjacent islands, to the Azores, are only 

 inhabited by oxen without a hunch, who derive their origin from the 

 aurochs. 



Every part of South America is inhabited by oxen without hunches, 

 which the Spaniards, and other Europeans, have successively transported. 

 These oxen are multiplied, and are only become smaller in these countries. 

 Thus the wild and the tame ox, the European, the Asian, the American, 

 and the African ox, the bonasus, the aurochs, the bison, and the zebu, are 

 all animals of one and the same species ; who, according to the climates, 

 (bod, and different usage they have met with, have undergone all the varia- 

 tions we have before explained. The ox, as the most useful animal, is also 

 the most universally dispersed. He appears ancient in every climate, tame 

 among civilized nations, and wild in desert or unpolished countries. He 

 supports himself by his own strength when in a state of nature, and has 

 never lost the qualities which are useful to the service of man. The young 

 wild calves, which are taken from their mothers in India and Africa, have, 

 m a short time, become as tractable as those which are the issue of the 

 tame kind, and this natural conformity is another striking proof of the 

 identity of the species. 



The characters by which the strongly marked group of animals thus 

 associated together, are distinguished from the neighboring tribes, are, like 

 most of those which serve to subdivide the great family of the ruminants, 

 of a very subordinate description. Their horns are common to both sexes, 

 simple in their form, curved outwards at the base and upwards towards the 

 point ; and supported internally, by long processes arising from the skull, 

 having cavities within them communicating with the frontal sinuses, which 

 are largely developed. Their muzzle is of large size ; the skin along 

 the middle of the neck and chest forms a pendulous dewlap of greater or 

 less extent; and the general robustness of their make is strikingly con- 

 trasted with the lightness and elegance of form of some of the nearly 

 related groups. 



