98 TEXT-BOOK OF ZOOLOGY 



beaver.) The water provides the animal with its food. By means of 

 its powerful incisors and canines (which latter furnish excellent ivory) 

 it tears up by their roots from the bottom all kinds of plants, which it 

 crushes between the large molars of its gigantic jaws. If unable to find 

 sufficient food in the water, the animal is compelled to ascend to the land. 

 The feet have broad " soles," formed by four toes of equal length, which 

 are united by webs and can be spread asunder ; these enable it to stride 

 even across mud and sand (compare with wild boar and elk). The hide 

 is about f inch in thickness, almost naked, and of a reddish-brown 

 colour. From it are made the thongs or whips of which we hear so 

 much in countries where the slave-trade still prevails. 



Sub-Order 2 : Ruminant Artiodactyles, Ruminants (A. ruminantia). 



Incisors and canines usually absent in the upper jaw. Kuminate, or 

 " chew the cud." Stomach consisting, as a rule, of four divisions. The 

 head is usually furnished with horns or antlers. Body covered with stiff 

 or woolly hairs. 



Family i : Hollow-Horned Ruminants (Cavicornia). 

 The Ox (Bos taurus). 



A. Its Origin. 



At the time of the ancient Germans, according to Eoman writers, two 

 species of wild horned cattle lived in Central Europe : viz., the Bison 

 (Bison europaus] and the Urus or, really, Auerochs (Bos primigenius). 

 Both species still existed in considerable numbers in the Middle Ages ; 

 but as they were an obstacle to agriculture, they were destroyed in 

 constantly increasing numbers. At the present time the bison is almost 

 extinct. Leaving out of consideration some that are kept in several 

 large zoological gardens, a few hundred only are still preserved in the 

 aboriginal forests of Bjelowjesha in Lithuania, while a few herds in the 

 wild state are still to be found in the most inhospitable parts of the 

 Caucasus range. The urus survived in Poland till the sixteenth century ; 

 in Germany it has been extinct since the year 1100, but in the form of 

 our domestic ox, which naturalists have recognised as a descendant of 

 that primeval giant, it survives to the present day, and will probably 

 prolong its existence far into future ages. 



The urus was domesticated long before the beginning of history. By 

 the constant selection for propagation of individuals most useful for his 

 purpose (compare dog), man, in the course of thousands of years, 

 has succeeded in transforming the urus into the domestic ox, numerous 

 varieties of which are now spread, as the most important of domestic 

 animals, over a great portion of our earth. 



