VIII CURIOUS BREED OF OXEN 155 



marked animals, and its number is known : so that, one being 

 lost out of ten thousand, it is perceived by its absence from 

 one of the tropillas. During a stormy night the cattle all 

 mingle together ; but the next morning the tropillas separate 

 as before ; so that each animal must know its fellow out of 

 ten thousand others. 



On two occasions I met with in this province some oxen 

 of a very curious breed, called nata or niata. They appear 

 cxternall)' to hold nearly the same relation to other cattle, 

 which bull or pug dogs do to other dogs. Their forehead is 

 very short and broad, with the nasal end turned up, and the 

 upper lip much drawn back ; their lower jaws project be}-ond 

 the upper, and have a corresponding upward curve ; hence their 

 teeth are always exposed. Their nostrils are seated high up and 

 are very open ; their eyes project outwards. When walking 

 they carry their heads low, on a short neck ; and their hinder 

 legs are rather longer compared with the front legs than is usual. 

 Their bare teeth, their short heads, and upturned nostrils give 

 them the most ludicrous self-confident air of defiance imaginable. 



Since my return, I have procured a skeleton head, through 

 the kindness of my friend Captain Sulivan, R.N., which is now 

 deposited in the College of Surgeons.^ Don F. Muniz, of 

 Luxan, has kindly collected for me all the information which 

 he could respecting this breed. From his account it seems 

 that about eighty or ninety years ago, they were rare and kept 

 as curiosities at Buenos Ayres. The breed is universally 

 believed to have originated amongst the Indians southward of 

 the Plata ; and that it was with them the commonest kind. 

 Even to this day, those reared in the provinces near the Plata 

 show their less civilised origin, in being fiercer than common 

 cattle, and in the cow easily deserting her first calf, if visited 

 too often or molested. It is a singular fact that an almost 

 similar structure to the abnormal- one of the niata breed, 

 characterises, as I am informed by Dr. P^alconer. that great 

 extinct ruminant of India, the Sivatherium. The breed is very 

 true ; and a niata bull and cow invariabl}' produce niata calves. 



^ Mr. Waterhouse has drawn up a detailed description of this head, which I hope 

 he will publish in some Journal. 



- A nearly similar abnormal, but I do not know whether hereditary, structure 

 has been observed in the carp, and likewise in the crocodile of the Ganges : Histoire 

 des Anomalies, par M. Isid. Geoffroy St. Hilaire, torn. i. p. 244. 



