1833.] CURIOUS BREED OF OXEN. 139 



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, 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, cha- 

 racterizes, as I am informed by Dr. Falconer, that 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 Seiior 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 transmits 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 is under a great disadvantage, and would be exterminated if 

 not attended to; for the common cattle, like horses, are able just 

 to keep alive, by browsing with their lips on twigs of trees and 

 reeds ; this the niatas cannot jso well do, as their lips do not join, 

 and hence they are found to perish before the common cattle. 

 This strikes me as a good illustration of how little we are able to 

 judge from the ordinary habits of life, on what circumstances, 

 occurring only at long intervals, the rarity or extinction of a 

 species may be determined. 



November 19^. Passing the valley of Las Vacas, we slept at a 

 house of a North American, who worked a lime-kiln on the Arroyo 

 de las Vivoras. In the morning we rode to a projecting headland 

 on the banks of the river, called Punta Gorda. On the way we 

 tried to find a jaguar. There were plenty of fresh tracks, and wo 



* 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 : Histoirc'des Anomalies, par M. Isid. Geoffrey St. Hilairc, 

 torn. 1. p. 244. 



