M. Roulin on Domestic Animals. 331 



in the same places. Both are always much lighter than those 

 of the cattle reared upon the plain of Bogota, and the latter 

 are inferior in this respect as well as in the thickness of the pile, 

 to the wild cattle of the Paramo de Santa Isabel. 



I have seen in the warmest parts of the province of Mari- 

 guita and Neyba, horned cattle, whose hair is extremely thin 

 and fine. They are called pelones. This variety is repro- 

 duced by generation, but the people are not desirous of pro- 

 pagating it ; for, as part of the cattle reared in these places is 

 destined for the consumption of the towns of the Cordillera, 

 where they are to remain to be fattened before being killed, the 

 pelones, which do not bear cold well, are not adapted for expor- 

 tation. 



In the same places there are also frequently produced indi- 

 viduals named calungos, whose skin is entirely naked, like that 

 of the Turkish dogs. These animals being weaker and more 

 deHcate, it is usual to kill them before they are capable of pro- 

 pagating. 



None of these naked animals are ever seen in the cold parts. 



In Europe, where the milk is an important article in the 

 produce of black cattle, the cow is generally milked from the 

 time of her first calf till she ceases bearing. This practice, 

 constantly repeated on all the individuals during a long series 

 of generations, has ended in producing durable alterations in 

 the species. The teats have acquired a greater size than usual, 

 and the milk continues to flow into them even after the calf has 

 been removed. In Columbia, a new rural system, the abun- 

 dance of cattle in proportion to the number of inhabitants, their 

 dispersion in pasturages of too great an extent, and a multitude 

 of circumstances, which it is not my object to mention, have 

 interrupted these habits. It has required but a small number 

 of generations to reduce the organization thus freed of restraint 

 to its normal state. At the present day, therefore, if a cow is 

 intended to give milk, the first care is to let it have its calf 

 which must be left all day with it, and be allowed to suck as it 

 pleases. They are only separated in the evening, that the milk 

 which collects through the night may be procured. If the calf 

 dies, the milk immediately ceases. 



The ass, in the provinces in which I have had opportunity 



