NATURAL HISTORY. 1?1 



andbecome unequal and black. The borns fall off at three' 

 years, and these are replaced by other horns, which, like' 

 the second teeth, do not fall off a second time. Those 

 of the ox and the cow grow larger and longer than those 

 of the bull ; but the growth of 'these second horns is 

 not uniform. The fourth year of the age of the ox, 

 two little pointed horns sprout, which are even, and 

 terminate at the head by a kind of knob. The fol- 

 lowing year this knob grows from the head, pushed 

 out by a cylinder of horn, which forms and terminates 

 also by another knob ; for as long as the animal lives, 

 the horns grow. These knobs become annular knobs, 

 which are easily to be distinguished in the horns, and 

 by which also the age may be easily known, by reck- 

 oning three years for the first knob next the point of 

 the horn, and one year more for each of the intervals 

 between the other knobs. 



The horse eats night and day, slowly, but almost 

 continually. The ox, on the contrary, eats quick, and 

 takes in a short time all the food which he requires ; 

 after which he ceases to eat, and lies down to ruminate. 

 This difference arises from the different conformation 

 of the stomachs ofthese animals. The ox, of whose sto- 

 machs the two first form but one bag of a vast capacity, 

 can in both of them receive grass, at the same time 

 which it afterwards ruminates and digests at leisure. 

 The horse, whose stomach is small, and can receive but 

 a small quantity of grass, is filled successively inpropoi- 

 tion as he digests it, and it passes into the intestines, where 

 the principal decomposition of the food is performed. 



Chewing the cud is but a vomiting without straining, 

 occasioned by the re-action of the first stomach on the 

 food which it contains. The ox fills the two first 

 stomachs, the paunch, and the bag, which is but a poj> 



