

REARING AND FEEDING OF ANIMALS. 343 



the points, nor too thick at the root, and of a yellowish or waxy colour. The 

 eye should be clear, bright and prominent, showing much of the white, and 

 it ought to have around it a circle of a variable colour, but usually a dark 

 orange. The forehead should be flat, indented, and small; for by the small- 

 ness of the forehead, the purity of the breed is very much estimatec 1 . The 

 cheek should be small, and the'muzzle fine: the nose should be of a clear yel- 

 low. A black muzzle is disliked, and even a mottled one is objected to by 

 some who pretend to be judges of the true Devon. The nostril should be high 

 and open: the hair curled about the head, and giving, at first appearance, an 

 idea of coarseness which soon wears off. The neck should be thick, and that 

 sometimes almost to a fault. 



Excepting in the head and neck the form of the bull does not materially 

 differ from that of the ox, but he is considerably smaller. There are some ex- 

 ceptions, however, to this rule, and as an illustration of this, we have inserted 

 the portrait of a pure Devon bull (belonging to Mr. WESTERN,) father of the 

 ox and the cow, portraits of which are given on pages 341 and 342. We may 

 fancy that we trace in this singular and noble animal, the lineaments of the 

 native, and scarcely reclaimed British bull. 



The head of the ox is Mnall. very singuhuly so, relatively to the bulk of the 

 animal, yet it has a striking breadth of forehead. It is clean and free from 

 lle>h about the jaws. The eye is very prominent, and the animal has a pleas-. 

 ing vivacity of countenance plainly distinguishing it from the heavy aspect of 

 many other breeds. Its neck is long and thin, admirably adapting it for the 

 collar, and even for the more common and ruder yoke. 



The want of the beautifully arched form of the'neck, which is seen in the 

 horse, has been considered as a defect in most breeds of cattle. It is account- 

 ed one of the charactei ittle, that the line of the neck from the horns 

 to the withers should srarcdy deviate from that of the back. In the Devon- 

 shire ox, however, there is a peculiar rising of the forehand, reminding us not 

 a little of the blood-horse, and essentially connected with the free and quick 

 action by which this breed has ever been distinguished. It has little or no 

 dewlap depending from its throat. The horns an. 1 I mi^r than those of the 

 bull, smaller and fine even to the base, and of a lighter colour, and sometimes 

 tipped with yellow. The animal is light in the withers the shoulders a little 

 oblique; the breast deep, and the bosom open and wide, particularly as con- 

 trasted with the fineness of the withers. The fore-legs are wide apart, look- 

 ing like pillars that have to support a great weight. The point of the shoulder 

 is rarely or never seen. There is no projection of bone as in the horse, but 

 there is a kind of level line running on to the neck. 



These are characteristic and important points. Angular bony projections 

 are never found in a beast that carries much flesh and fat. The fineness of 

 the withers, the slanting direction of the shoulder, and the broad and open 

 breast, imply both strength and speed, and aptitude to fatten. A narrow- 

 chested animal can never he useful either for working or grazing. 



The ir)ij>nn-i'(l thort -horns are thus described by JAMLS DICKSON, Esq., an emi- 

 nent cattle dealer and breeder in Great Britain. When we survey the frame 

 of a short-horn ox, we have a >traight level back from behind the horns to the 

 top of the tail, full buttocks, and a projecting brisket; we have, in short, the 

 rectangular form, as represented in a side view by Fig. 1; we have, also, the 

 level loin across the hook bones, and the level top of the shoulder across the 

 ox, and perpendicular lines down the hind and fore legs on both sides, these 

 constituting the square form, when Uie ox is viewed before and behind, as re- 

 presented in Figs. '2 and 3; and we have straight parallel lines from the sides 

 of the shoulders along the. utmost points of the ribs to the sides of the hind 

 quarters; and we have these lines connected at their ends by others of shorter 

 and equal length, across the end of the rump and the top of the shoulder, thus 

 constituting the rectangular form of the ox when viewed from above down 

 upon the back, as represented by Fig. 4. We have in this manner, the form 

 of the short-horn ox and heifer in perfect accordance with the diagrams of the 

 rule. 



Further, I should be inclined to assert, although I have not directed my at- 

 tention to the fact sufliciently to be able to prove the assertion from examples, 



