I 



DIFFERENT BEEEDS OF OXEN\ 85; 



rounding it. The forehead ought to be flat, small, and indented. 

 The purity of the breed is in a great measure determined by the 

 smallness of the forehead. The cheek should be small, the 

 muzzle fine, and the nose of a clear yellow colour. The muzzle 

 ought not to be black, nor even mottled. The nostril should be 

 high and open ; and the hair about the head should be curly, 

 though this may impart some coarseness of general appearance. 

 The neck should be thick. As a rule the bulls of this breed are 

 smaller than the cows, though otherwise the males are very 

 similar to the females except in the region of the head and neck. 

 The head of the ox is singularly small in relation to the bulk 

 of the animal, and yet it has a remarkably broad forehead. 

 The neck is long and thin, and well suited for the collar and 

 €ven for the yoke. It is usually looked upon as a characteristic of 

 ^ood cattle that the line of the neck, from the horns to the 

 withers, should scarcely deviate from that of the back. However, 

 the Devonshire ox has a peculiar rising of the forehand, remind- 

 ing us of the bloodhorse, and essentially connected with the 

 swift action for which this breed is distinguished. This ox has 

 little or no dewlap depending from its neck. The animal is 

 light in the withers, the shoulders are a little oblique, the breast 

 is deep, the bosom open and wide. The fore-legs are wide apart, 

 and look like pillars constructed to support a great weight. 

 The point of the shoulder is rarely or never seen. Angular 

 bony projections are not observed in a beast which carries 

 much flesh and fat. The fineness of the withers, the slanting 

 ■direction of the shoulder, and the broad and open breast imply 

 the possession of strength and the capacity for speed and for 

 fattening. An animal which has a narrow chest cannot be 

 useful either for working or for grazing. The legs of the Devon- 

 shire ox seem to be well under the chest, or rather, we may say, 

 the breast projects far and wide beyond the legs. The legs 

 are straight, or at least those of the best-bred animals are. If 

 they are in-kneed or crooked in the fore-legs, they will be unsuit- 

 able both for work and for grazing, for they will be hollow be- 

 hind the withers; and for this defect nothing can compensate, 

 because it takes away so much from the place where good flesh 

 id fat should be thickly laid on, and, moreover, implies a 

 reduced capacity of the chest and consequently a want of power 

 of producing good arterial blood. The fore-arm is very large and 



