It 



BOVIH.K 



BOVII-.K 



iU moo* obliged him to retire ; for the dams will allow no pennon to 

 touch their calves without attacking thrin with impetuous ferocity. 

 When any one happen* to be wounded, or is grown weak and feeble 

 through age or sickness, the mit of the herd act upon it and gore it 

 to death. The weight of the oxen in generally from forty to fifty 

 tone* the four quarters ; the cows about thirty. The beef U finely 

 marbled and of excellent flavour. Those at Burton-Countable in the 

 county of York were all destroyed by a distemper a few yean since. 

 They varied slightly from those at Chillingham, having black ears and 

 muzzles, and the tips of their tails of the same colour : they ware also 

 much larger, many of them weighing sixty stones ; probably owing to 

 the richness of the pasturage in Holderness, but generally attributed 

 to the difference of kind between those with Muck and with red ears, 

 the former of which they studiously endeavour to preserve. The 

 breed which was at Drumlanrig in Scotland had also black ears." 



Mr. Bell C British Quadrupeds,' 1839 the 'Ox'), after referring to 

 Griffith's ed. of Cuvier for Colonel Hamilton Smith's interesting and 

 learned dissertation upon the mythology and ancient history of the 

 Ox, says, " Whether the ox exist now or has existed within the 

 range of sound historical testimony, in its original state, or whether, 

 as in the case of the hone, all the instances of the occurrence of wild 

 oxen of this species now on record have not been derived from the 

 domestic race, fortuitously escaped from servitude and become wild, is 

 a question which it is difficult if not impossible satisfactorily to solve. 

 The ancient accounts of the L'riu, or Wild Ox, declare it to have been 

 an animal of enormous size and great fierceness ; and the horns are 

 described as being large, spreading, and acute. In this country and 

 in many parts of the Continent have occurred numerous fossil bones 

 of oxen, with large horns, having the form and direction of those of 

 certain breeds only of our present cattle, particularly of such as are 

 most wild ; as for instance the celebrated wild white oxen of Craven, 

 of Chillingham Park, and of Scotland (the But Scotitui of some authors). 

 I cannot but consider it as extremely probable that these fossil remains 

 belonged to the original wild condition of our domestic ox, an opinion 

 which Cuvier appears to have entertained, who calls the skulls ' Cranes 

 emblablea a ceaux d'un bosuf domestique.' They are found only in 

 Tory recent deposits, frequently in caverns mingled with the remains 

 of various other animals, as in the celebrated cave of Kirkdale, and in 

 different parts of Cornwall and of Devonshire. I have several teeth 

 and some fragments of bones from Kent's Hole, in the latter county, 

 where they were found in the same mass with the remains of the 

 elephant, the rhinoceros, the deer, the bear, and the hyaena, Cuvier 

 however considers that they existed after the destruction of the latter 

 species. It has indeed been attempted to prove that the ancient 

 remains alluded to, together with the Chillingham and Scottish breed, 

 belong to a distinct specific type from the common domestic ox ; and 

 some modifications of structure have been cited iu proof of this opinion. 

 It does not appear to me however that these modifications are of suffi- 

 cient value to constitute specific distinction, as they appertain only to 

 parts which are very variable iu particular breeds of the domestic 

 cattle ; they are, some slight differences in the form and direction of 

 the horns, and the existence in old bulls of a short rudimentary maiic 

 and some hair upon the breast. Now, there is certainly no point of 

 sufficient importance to form a specific distinction, even were the form 

 of the horns less variable than they ore iu our domestic oxen. We 

 require yet a series of well-authenticated and well-directed experiments 

 on the intermixture of the Scottish or Chillingham cattle with the 

 domestic breeds, and the fertile or infertile character of the progeny ; 

 which, if the views I have so repeatedly stated be correct, would at 

 once decide the question. Even Colonel Smith himself, a high authority 

 in these matters, although he urges the specific distinction of the two 

 animal*, says, ' The character of the domestic oxen is absolutely the 

 Mine as the fossil, and the wild breeds differ only in the flexure of the 

 horns and external appearance, occasioned by the variations of climate, 

 food, and treatment.' But, it may be asked, do variations of climate, 

 food, and treatment produce specific distinctions ? And \.i this dis- 

 tinction is, as I have just stated, held both by Colonel Smith ami Mr. 

 Swainson. Upon the whole I cannot but believe that the fossil bones 

 belonged to the original stock of our domestic ox, and that the wild 

 white cattle (the But flruiicui and Urtu Scoticut of the authors just 

 named) approach so near to it as to leave it a matter of doubt, not 

 whether they all belong to the same species, but whether this breed 

 be the actual remnant of that original stock, or the descendants of 

 domesticated individuals which have resumed in a great degree their 

 wild character from having ceased through many generations to feel 

 the effects of human domination." 



In hi* 'History of British Fossil Mammals,' speaking of the Hot 

 jiimiymiiu, Professor Owen says 



" < if this species we have the same examples, short of the still 

 preserved living animal, as of the bison ; and it is most satisfactory 

 to find such proof of the general accuracy of the brief but most 

 interesting indications of the primitive mammalian fauna of those 

 regions of Europe, which may be 'supposed to have presented to the 

 Roman cohorts the same aspect as America did to the first colonists 

 of New England. 



" In the same deposits and localities which have yielded remains 

 of the Aurochs (liuon prwctu) there have been found the remains 

 of another bovine animal, its equal or superior in size, but dilt< T n_- 



from the Aurochs, precisely as the Roman poets and historian* have 

 indicated, by the greater length of its horns. 



"The persistent In.ny Mip|>ru or cores of the horns likewise 

 demonstrate by their place of origin ami curvature, the sub-generic 

 distinction of the groat Urus from the bison, and its nearer affinity to 

 the domestic ox ; whence we may infer that it resembled the ...\ in 

 the close nature of its hairy covering, which would make the shaggy 

 coat and the mane of the Aurochs more remarkable by comparison. 

 It is much to be regretted, for the intercuts of zoology, that the great 

 Hercynian Uri have been less favoured than their contemporary 

 Hunntn jubati in the progress of human ch ml that no 



individuals now remain for study and comparison like the Aurochs 

 of Lithuania. 



" My esteemed friend Professor Bell, who hns written the ' 1 1 

 of Existing British Quadrupeds,' is disposed to believe with i 

 and most other naturalists, that our domestic cattle are the degene- 

 rative descendants of the great Urus. But it seems to m<> 

 probable that the herds of the newly conquered regions w<>> 

 derived from the already domesticated cattle of the Roman colonists 

 of those 'boves nostri,' for example, by comparison with whii-h 

 Caesar endeavoured to convey to his countrymen an idea of the 

 stupendous and formidable I'ri .if tl.r Hercynian forests. The 

 taming of such a species would be much more difficult, and his 

 certain mode of supplying the exigencies of the agriculturist, than 

 the importation of the breeds of oxen already domesticated ami in 

 use by the founders of the new colonies. And that the latter was 

 the chief if not the sole source of the ox of England, when its 

 soil began to be cultivated under the Roman sw I y indicated 



by the analogy of modern colonies. The domestic cattle, for example, 

 of the Anglo-Americans have not been derived from tame descendants 

 of the original wild cattle of North there, on the contrary, 



the bison is fast disappearing In-fore the advance of the agricultural 

 settlers, just as the Aurochs and its contemporary the Urus have 

 L'ivi-n way before a similar progress iu Europe. 



" With regard to the great Urus I believe that this progress has 

 caused its utter extirpation, and that our knowledge of it is now 1 i 

 to deductions from its fossil or serai-fossil remains." 



There seems to be little doubt then that the Fossil (>\ 

 primigtniui) is entirely extinct, and that all our domestic and wild 

 cattle belong to But Taurus. 



]'.nglih Bull (Ilia 'J'aiii-ni , !>lmi t-horncd. 



B. Indicia, the Zebu, has the following specific characters : 

 Forehead convex; withers with a more or less large fleshy hump; 

 dewlap deep, waved ; the upper part of the rump shelving very 

 much. Amongst scientific writers this animal has had many 

 designations. It ia the Bot Indk-us of I, lumens, the Boi dom- 

 of Hodgson, the Bot Taurut Indicut of Fischer, Boi /.tin: ,,{ .1. Brookes, 

 Bot Taurtu Zebu of Wagner. Varieties or particular breeds have also 

 obtained a number of distinct a].] Little Indian I'.utlalo, 



Indian Bull, Great Indian Ox, (inn I'.ullock, Sacred Hull, Madras Ox, 

 Madhu Givi Oxen, Scringapat I'wo-Humpcd Zel.ii, Hornless 



Zebu, Buchanan Ox, Nepaul Ox, and Javanese Cow. 



The domesticated Zebns vary much in their si/.e ami the direction 

 of their horns, but are generally distinguished by a fatty elevated 

 hump below the neck and over the wit hart. 



The horns of some are short and milx-rect (Indian Ox\ in 

 comparatively long and pointed liaekwards. with an in. 

 curve inwards, as in the more common breeds (/elm). The . 

 some are of ordinary size and position (/elm) ; in others pendulous 

 (Indian Ox). The dewlap is more or less developed, in Bonn 

 largely. Their eo lour varies from a light ashy-gray to a milk-white, 

 and their si/.e from the stature of an ordinary bull to that of 

 mastiff. Many of the e varieties may lie seen in the gardens of the 

 Zoological Society in the Hcgenfs Park. The limlis of 

 like and elegant. The\ I." says Mr. IJemiett, "orertke 



whole of southern Asia, the islands of the Indian .\ivhi|>o!ago, 

 and tlm eastern coast of Africa, from Abyssinia to the Cape of < 

 Hop*." 



i any parts of India the Zebu is placet! under the saddle or 

 harnessed to a carriage, and travels at an easy rate. It nm-t have 

 lost much of its fleetness, if the more ancient writers are to be 

 credited ; for they speak of 60 or 60 miles a day as its usual 



