180 THE OX TRIBE. 



Zebu and a Mouse, or a Flamingo ? Yet this is the 

 material of which the columns are composed. 



But one of the most unhappy of Mr. Swainson's 

 speculations is that wherein he represents the Bos Scoticus, 

 or wild ox, as the type of " an untameuble savage race, 

 which preserves, even in the domestication of a park, 

 all that fierceness which the ancient writers attributed to 

 the wild bulls of Britain and the European continent. 

 Let those who imagine that the influence of civilization, 

 of care, and of judicious treatment, will alter the natural 

 instinct of animals, look to this as a palpable refutation of 

 their doctrine. [!] Where is that boasted power of man 

 'over nature ? Where the fruits of long-continued efforts 

 and fostering protection ? [! !] The Bos Scoticus is as un- 

 tameable now as it was centuries ago, simply for this 

 reason, that it is in accordance with an unalterable law 

 of nature ; a law by which one type in every group is to 

 represent the worst passions of mankind fierceness, or 

 cruelty, or horror." [! ! !} 



Who would for a moment imagine that all this grand- 

 iloquence is bestowed upon an animal, which is so far 

 from being fierce and untameable, that young ones, taken 

 and reared with ordinary cattle, become, even in the first 

 generation, as tame as domestic animals ? [See account 

 of Chillingham White Cattle, p. 140.] 



For a more complete satisfaction of his thought, the 

 reader is referred to Mr. Swainson's volume " On the 

 Natural History and Classification of Quadrupeds," 

 p. 274, where he has given us an incoherent abstract of 

 Colonel Smith's article on the Bovirus, without, however, 

 making the least attempt to verify the statements 

 there recorded. The descriptions and characteristics are 



