220 VERTEBRATA. MAMMALIA. 



patient creature may be best seen. Bred to a very 

 high degree of perfection, the Ox here manifests ex- 

 traordinary good temper, and willingness to labour, 

 with a strength, agility, and perseverance truly ad- 

 mirable. " Four good Devonshire Oxen will do as 

 much work as three horses ; and in returning with 

 empty waggons in harvest, they will trot six miles 

 an hour." Many other breeds have equal excellence 

 in other points, according as the desired object be 

 labour, fattened meat, or the milk of the female. 

 The Cow of the hornless Suffolk breed, will often 

 yield thirty-two quarts of milk per day. 



There is, in some parks on both sides of the Scot- 

 tish border, a remnant of a noble breed, supposed 

 to be the ancient wild cattle of the British forests. 

 They are of a pure creamy -white, with red ears, and 

 a black muzzle ; and have all the savage wildness 

 of an unsubdued race. But probably the ancestors of 

 these were individuals escaped from domestication, 

 when our country afforded them abundant shelter and 

 concealment. 



In India several breeds are cultivated of peculiarly 

 gentle disposition, but varying greatly in size from 

 that of a small Sheep to that of our largest Oxen ; 

 they are marked by a singular excrescence on the 

 shoulders, resembling the hump of the Camel, and 

 like it composed of gristly fat. This variety is usu- 

 ally named the Zebu. 



The Aurochs, (B. Urus,) a savage and ferocious 

 animal of great power, is found in the great marshy 

 forests of Poland and Southern Russia. It has been 

 by some considered the stock of our breeds, but 



