MIDDLE-HOR>rED CATTLE THE DEVON AND THE SUSSEX. 713 



The horns are longer than those of the bull, smaller, and fine even to 

 the base, and of a lighter color, arid tipped with yellow. 



The animal is light in the withers ; the shoulders a little oblique ; the 

 breast deep, and the bosom open and wide, particularly as contrasted 

 with the fineness of the withers. 



The fore legs are ^vide apart, looking like pillars that have to support 

 a great weight. 



The point of the shoulder is rarely or never seen. There is no pro- 

 jection of bone, but there is a kind of level line running on to the neck. 



Angular bony projections are never found in a beast that carries much 

 flesh and fat. 



The fineness of the withers, the slanting direction of the shoulder, and 

 the broad and open breast, imply strength, speed, and aptitude to fatten. 



A narrow-chested animal can never be useful either for working or 

 grazing. 



With all the lightness of the Devon ox, there is a jDoint about him, 

 disliked in the blood or riding horse, and not approved in the horse of 

 light draught — the legs are far under the chest, or rather the breast pro- 

 jects far and wide before the legs. We see the advantage of this 

 in the beast of slow draught, who rarely breaks into a trot, except 

 when he is goaded on in catching times, and the division of whose foot 

 prevents him from stumbling. 



The lightness of the other parts of his form, however, counterbal- 

 ances heaviness there. 



VIII. The Legs of the Devon. 



The legs are straight, at least in the best herds. If they are in-kneed 

 or crooked in the fore legs, it argues a deficiency in blood, and compara- 

 tive incapacity for work, and for grazing, too ; for they w'U be hollow 

 behind the withers, a point for which nothing can compensate, because it 

 takes away so much from the place where good flesh and fat should be 

 thickly laid on, and diminishes the capacity of the chest and the power 

 of creating arterial and nutritious blood. 



The fore-arm is particularly large and powerful. It swells out sud- 

 denly above the knee, but is soon lost in the substance of the shoulder. 



Below the knee the bone is small to a very extraordinary degree, indi- 

 cating a seeming want of strength ; but this impression immediately 

 ceases, for the smallness is only in front — it is only in the bone ; the leg 

 is deep, and the sinews are far removed from the bone, promising both 

 strength and speed. 



It may be objected that the leg is a little too long. It would be so in 

 an animal destined only to graze ; but this is a working animal, and some 

 length of leg is necessary to get him actively over the ground. 



