34 NATURAL HISTORY. 



States and Canada, Colonel Lewis Sanders, of Kentucky, being the first who did so on anything like- 

 thorough principles. Others followed his example with success, especially about the year 1852, when 

 a fresh impulse was given to their production because of the rise of price in meat, as well as the foreign 

 demand for it. The Booth and Bates bloods predominate in these animals, and form the basis of 

 much of the beef now re-shipped to England. 



The great advantage of the Shorthorn breed is that they, together with a good temper, combine 

 the advantages of great size and aptitude to fatten, rapidly reaching maturity. For dairy purposes 

 they are excelled by the Suffolk Duns and Ayrshire cattle, the latter, with their enormous udders, 

 broad hips, and deep flanks, being the best as milkers. Hereford, North Devon, and Scottish black 

 Shorthorns are inferior to those of the northern counties in their slowness of growth and power of 

 filling out. Those of North Devon are particularly symmetrical in form. The mountain cattle of 

 the western Highlands, otherwise known as the Kyloe breed, are best known from the hardiness 

 of their constitutions, protected as they are by their thick hides and shaggy coats. The Welsh and 

 Shetland cattle resemble them in many respects. 



In Hungaiy, Turkey, and Western Asia there is a breed of large cattle with peculiarly long and 

 slender outward-spreading horns, black-tipped, and greyish throughout the rest of their length. 



In India, the Sacred Cattle, or ZEBUS, with convex forehead, short horns, large drooping ears, 

 and a short head, possess a high hump upon the withers, as well as an ample dewlap falling in undu- 

 lating folds along the whole length of the neck. Their disposition is mild, as is indicated by their 

 expression, and the liberty they are allowed in India ia wonderful. They vary greatly in size, some 

 being not bigger than an average month-old calf. The breed has extended in times gone by through 

 Persia into Eastern Africa, where it is found with a narrower and flatter face, at the same time that 

 the hump is smaller. 



The introduction of steam, as well as the extension in the employment of the Horse, has almost 

 entirely superseded the use of cattle as beasts of burden or draught in highly civilised nations. 



The GOUR, the GAYAL, and the BANTING are three species of wild cattle found in the Oriental 

 world from India to Java, peculiar in possessing a ridge running along the middle of the back, and 

 horns which, after running outwards from the head, are directed upwards and not backwards. Of 

 these the Gour of Central India is the largest, measuring six feet at the withers, having also a convex 

 profile, very high withers, and an arched back, which makes the line from the nose to the root of the 

 tail, along the spine, a fairly continuous curve. Its colour is a deep brown glossy black, excepting a 

 ring of white encircling the base of each hoof, and a white tuft on the forehead. There is not any 

 ti*ace of a dewlap in either sex. The horns are not more than two feet in length, strong, and curved 

 boldly upwards at their tips. The Gour is found abundantly in herds of twenty or so around the table- 

 lands, especially of South Bahar, feeding on the young leaves of the trees and shrubs. It appears 

 to have resisted all attempts at domestication. The Gayal is found in the hill-region east of the 

 Brahmaputra. It is much the size of English cattle. The bull is bold, and the cow easily domesti- 

 cated. Its home is the deep jungle, where it can obtain the young leaves and shoots of the brushwood. 

 According to Mr. Macrae the following is the method employed by the Kookies of the Chittagong 

 hill-region to catch the animal : " On discovering a herd of wild Gayals in the jungle, they prepare 

 a number of balls, of the size of a man's head, composed of a particular kind of earth, salt, and cotton. 

 They then drive their tame Gayals towards the wild ones, when the two herds soon meet and assimilate 

 into one ; the males of the one attaching themselves to the females of the other, and vice versd. The 

 Kookies now scatter their balls over such parts of the jungle as they think the herd most likely to 

 pass, and watch its motions. The Gayals, on meeting these balls as they pass along, ai - e attracted by 

 their appearance and smell, and begin to lick them with their tongues ; and relishing the taste of the 

 salt, and the particular earth composing them, they never quit the place until all the balls are con- 

 sumed. The Kookies, having observed the Gayals to have once tasted their balls, prepare a sufficient 

 supply of them to answer the intended purpose, and as the Gayals lick them up they throw down more; and 

 it is to prevent their being so readily destroyed that the cotton is mixed with the earth and the salt. This 

 process generally goes on for three changes of the moon, or for a month and a half, during which time 

 the tame and the wild Gayals are always together, licking the decoy balls, and the Kookie, after the 

 first day or two of their being so, makes his appearance at such a distance as not to alarm the wild 



