i833-] CURIOUS CATTLE. 151 



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

 and the upper lip much drawn back ; their lower jaws 

 project beyond 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 gave 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 civilized origin in being fiercer than common cattle, 

 d.nd 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 t one of the niata breed, 

 characterizes, as I am informed by Dr. Falconer, the great 

 extinct ruminant of India, the sivatherium. The breed 

 is very true ; and a niata bull and cow invariably produce niata 

 calves. A niata bull with a common cow, or the reverse 

 cross, produces offspring having an intermediate character, 

 but with the niata characters strongly displayed : according 

 to Senor Muniz, there is the clearest evidence, contrary to 

 the common belief of agriculturists in analogous cases, 

 that the niata cow when crossed with a common bull trans- 

 mits her peculiarities more strongly than the niata bull 

 when crossed with a common cow. When the pasture is 

 tolerably long, the niata cattle feed with the tongue and 

 palate as well as common cattle ; but during the great 

 droughts, when so many animals perish, the niata breed 



• Mr, Watcrhouse has drawn up a detailed description of this head 

 which I hope he will puljlifih in nornc Journal. 



t A nearly nimilar abnormal, but I do not know whether hereditary, 

 structure ha« been observed in tlie carp, and likewise in the crocodile of 

 the f i.in^fes : " Histoirc dcs Anomalies,' par M. laid. Geoffroy St. Hilaire. 

 torn, i., p. 244. 



