IOO 



TEXT-BOOK OF ZOOLOGY 



animal. The second and fifth digits are rudimentary, and do not reach 

 the ground. 



(6) The toes are invested in stout hoofs, enabling the animal to step 

 firmly and plant itself securely against the inequalities of the surface. 

 Though the domesticated ox cannot, by a long way, attain to the speed 

 of the antelope, it can nevertheless, on occasion, run with considerable 

 velocity, as anyone can tell who has ever seen a wild bull rushing over 

 the fields. Nor is great speed of locomotion an indispensable condition 

 of the animal's life, since it is sufficiently protected by 



3. Its large size and great strength, and by 



4. The possession of special organs of defence, viz., the horns. 

 These are hollow, and form sheaths or covers for large bony excrescences 

 developed from the frontal bones. The presence of these organs condi- 

 tions the great breadth and height of the forehead. The cranial bones are 



SKULL OF THE Ox. (One-fifteenth natural size.) 

 The right horn has been removed from its bony core and drawn below it. 



of unusual thickness, and capable of enduring the hardest blows. The 

 force employed in the use of the horns as thrusting or butting weapons 

 is supplied in the powerful musculature of the nape of the neck. 

 Through the presence of these muscles and a loose-hanging cutaneous 

 fold, the dewlap, the neck appears shorter than it really is. The spinous 

 processes of the cervical vertebrae, and especially of the first dorsal 

 vertebra, are very long, and furnish surfaces of attachment for the 

 muscles. The strength of the ox lies chiefly in the neck. Accordingly, 

 when made to draw a cart or the plough, the yoke is attached to the 

 animal's forehead. 



5. Wild or semi-savage oxen live in herds, which renders them better 

 able to defend themselves than if they lived in a solitary state. 



