494 



VERTEBRATA 



accustomed to the pursuit of this animal, sometimes turn its irritable disposition to good account; 

 for an expert hunter having provoked a bull to attack him, wheels round it more quickly than it 

 can turn, and by repeated stabs in the belly puts an end to its life." 



We may here state thai an animal called Taxin, Budorcas taxicola, is found in the Hima- 

 laya mountains, and is placed among the Bovina by Dr. J. E. Gray. The hair is harsh and 

 short; the tail hairy like that of the goat; the head large and heavy; the limbs short and 

 straight; the hoofs broad. Its habits are, however, little known, and its position is not defined. 



Subgenus TAURUS. — Of this there is one species, the Domestic Ox; the Bos domes ticus 

 and Bos /mints of Linnaeus ; Bceuf of the French : Stier and Ochs of the Germans — the most use- 

 ful of all animals to man. Of its origin we have no record, and in attempting to discover its 

 parent stock, we have even greater difficulties than those which Inset us in tracing the parentage 

 of other domestic animals; for beside the various existing breeds of domestic cattle, there arc 

 several species of bovine animals which we have just described, analogous to them, and all of 

 which, whether aurochs, bison, buffalo, yak, or musk-ox, will breed with them, and the offspring 

 of all arc more or less prolific. 



There is in these facts a wide range for discussion and dispute. Some have traced all the 

 varieties of the modern ox — at least all the European varieties — to the aurochs, and that view hai 

 passed into a common opinion. Another idea has been that the Urus, spoken of by Caesar as 

 inhabiting the Hyrcanian forests at the time of his invasion of Gaul — some half a century before the 

 Christian era — was the true parent of our domestic cattle. As described by the great Roman 



THE CHILLINGHAM BULL. 



general this animal was of prodigious size and strength — at least one-third larger than our largos 

 oxen, and at the same time of a fierce and formidable nature. Tt has ceased to exist in a wild 

 state, but fossil bones arc found abundantly in various parts of Europe, supposed to have belonge< 

 to this species, and to which geologists give the name of Bos primigenius. One thing further 

 maintained, which is. that the existing Scottish or Chillingham breedqf Cdttlexre the true repn 

 sentatives of this formidable Urus : and as they are also manifestly allied to our domestic varieties 



