Reis: The Cattle of Brazil 



209 



A STRANGE ZEBU HYBRID 



Mestizo bull in the Phillipines; a cross between zebu bull and Batanese (native) cow. The 

 front half of the animal is wholly zebu in character, the dewlap and hump, which are the 

 particular property of the Indian breeds, being represented in perfection. The hinder 

 half of the animal is wholly characteristic of the native stock of its mother (note sheath 

 and rump). Photograph from the Bureau of Agriculture, Manila, P. I. (Fig. 8.) 



less money than the angular progeny 

 of the large-eared Gujarat. 



Zootechnists, who have transformed 

 the internal machinery of cattle in order 

 to make them yield more profit to their 

 owners, have entirely ignored that 

 common appendix, the ear: yet it is 

 the criterion by which admirers of the 

 zebu rate the value of the animal — its 

 length or shortness determines the high 

 or low amount of the price. 



The breeders of this race of cattle 

 value an ear more highly than the juicy 

 steak of a short-eared caracu. 



They say that the zebu without large 

 ears is not a zebu, and the native of the 

 interior advances that reason, as he 

 refuses to buy it. 



MENDELIAN SEGREGATION 



Among the breeders of this munici- 

 pality, it is a matter of common observa- 



tion that native characteristics are 

 wholly bred out and zebu characters 

 entirely dominant in hybrids after the 

 fifth generation. In the fourth genera- 

 tion they get a type which they call 

 purified, resulting from a cross of a 

 pure type with a seven-eights cow. 

 The crossing of a purified with a pure 

 blood is that which they accept as a 

 pure national type, the "Zebu of Minas." 



However, at present this race is not 

 yet estabHshed. Whether the breeder 

 breaks it up in the sixth generation by 

 crossing back to pure zebu, not realizing 

 that the introduction of this pure-blood 

 anew is equivalent to another hybridiza- 

 tion; or whether the Bos indicus under- 

 goes actual degeneration; the fact 

 remains that the pure Minas race of 

 zebu has never yet been fixed. 



The latter explanation seems more 

 acceptable, because the renovation of 



