ANIMALS. 537 



kind, as the pastures there are plentiful. Those of Arabia Pe- 

 trsea, and most parts of Africa, are small, and of the zebu or little 

 kind. In America, especially towards the north, the bison 

 is well known. The American bison, however, is found to 



specific designation grunniens or grunting' : but it should rather be groaning, 

 as its viiice lias no similarity with the grunt of a hog. The yak bears some 

 resemblance to a butfalo in tlie form of the head ; but it is shorter, more con. 

 vex, and thicker about the muzzle ; the ears are wide, horizontal ; the eyes 

 large; the muzzle itself small, and the nostrils almost transverse; the lips 

 tumid ; the forehead rather flat, the top of the head convex between the 

 ears, and covered with frizzled woolly hair ; the neck of the male thick ; the 

 withers elevated but not hunched ; the mainmse placed in a transverse line, 

 and the body furnished with fourteen pair of ribs. The hair of the forehead 

 whirls, and is close ; that on the neck, back, and sides, is long, woolly, pen. 

 dent in winter and upon high mountains, but shorter on the sides in summer 

 and in low warm situations. From the shoulders along the spine, there is a 

 streak of hair generally grayish, and turned forwards ; the tail more furnish, 

 ed with long and finer hairs than in the horse, reaches to the heels. The tta- 

 ture of the animal varies, the smaller being only seven feet long, and three 

 feet ten inches at the shoulder ; but there are larger varieties, the tail of one 

 in the British Museum measuring six feet in length. The horns are round, 

 smooth, pointed, lateral, bending forward and upwards, black or white with 

 black tips, or even pure white, and there are some hornless. The colour 

 varies greatly, but in general it is black; hut many have their fine tails 

 pure white, as also the ridge on the shoulders, which is abundantly cover- 

 ed with light frizzled hair, that it appears like a hunch ; two or four legs 

 are commonly of the same colour, and the line of the back sometimes extends 

 in a broad white streak to the tail : a few have locks of rufous among the 

 white about the shoulders. 



Like the rest of the bisontes, the yaks are more fond of mountainnus 

 woods and valleys, than the open plains, keeping on the south side in winter, 

 and on the north in summer. They are said to be fond of wallowing in water, 

 and to swim well : but to take the water, can only be in the summer licats, 

 and the countries where their fleece drops. The species is both wild and do- 

 mesticated, but the latter have still much of the sombre menacing, and down as. 

 pect of wild animals, and all their irascibility at the sight of the gay colours. 

 They will attack strangers, or at least throw out signals of hostility, stamp. 

 ing with the feet, whisking their tails aloft, and tossing the head : tliey are 

 active in running and climbing. The mountains of Bhotan and Thibet ofler 

 the principal asylum to the wild species, where they appear to enjoy the vici- 

 nity of the snow ; hut they are also domesticated in that country, spreading 

 from tlienc« over a great part of China, and even to Central India, where 

 fhey seem to be without woolly hair, but still marked by the white feet. We 

 are inclined to consider the while t-pecies of wild cattle in the Itamghur 

 mountains as a variety of this species; for a country which includes the 

 course of the Ganges from beyond the Himalaya range to the sea, contains 

 overy degree of climate, and may therefore, well be supposed to mark also 

 its various impressions upon animaln, to the two extremes of which the na- 

 tiire is capable ; and the practice of the lirahminical cast, to give liberty to 



