CLASS I. MAMMALIA: ORDER 9. RUMINANTIA. 



505 



The wild cattle which exist in immense herds on the plains of South America, and in Mexico 

 and Texas, are the offspring of animals carried thither by the Spaniards some two or three cen- 

 turies aero. For this space of time they have lived in a state of complete independence of man, 

 and as they preserve a close resemblance to the common cattle of Europe and America, it is 

 justly and strongly argued that these must be of an original and distinct, because self-perpetuating, 

 sDecies. 



INDIAN COW OR ZEBU OF THE SMALLER KIND. 



The Indian Ox or Zebu, Bos Indicus, is only known in a domestic state. In many respects 

 its conformation is peculiar ; it has a long head, short, blunt horns, drooping ears, and a hump 

 on its shoulders sometimes weighing fifty pounds. Its temper is gentle, and in its qualities it 

 resembles the common ox. It is supposed by many naturalists, and among others, by Bennett, 

 to be a mere variety of our common cattle, his chief reason being that it readily breeds with them 

 and its peculiarities rapidly disappear by the mixture. It has been lately shown, however, that 

 the number of vertebrae and period of gestation both differ from those of our cattle ; and hence 

 the opinion now prevails that the zebu is of a distinct species. Numerous breeds of them, vary- 

 ing in size from that of a large mastiff-dog to that of a full-grown buffalo, are spread, more or less 

 extensively, over the whole of Southern Asia, the islands of the Indian Archipelago, and the 

 eastern coast of Africa from Abyssinia to the Cape of Good Hope. In all these countries the 

 zebu supplies, to a greater or less extent, the place of the ox, both as a beast of draught and burden 

 and as an article of food and domestic economy. In some parts of India it executes the duties 

 of the horse, being either saddled and ridden, or harnessed in a carriage, and performing in this 

 manner journeys of considerable length with tolerable celerity. Some of the older writers speak 

 of fifty or sixty miles a day as its usual rate of traveling; but the more moderate computation of 

 recent authors does not exceed from twenty to thirty. Its beef is considered by no means despi- 

 cable, although far from equaling that of the European ox. The hump, which is chiefly com- 

 posed of fat, is reckoned the most delicate part. As might naturally be expected from its per- 

 fect domestication and wide diffusion, the zebu is subject to as great a variety of colors as those 

 of the European race. Its most common hue is a light ashy gray, passing into a cream-color 

 or milk-white ; but it is not unfrequently marked with various shades of red or brown, and 

 occasionally it becomes perfectly black. Its hump is sometimes elevated in a remarkable degree, 

 and usually retains its upright position; but sometimes it becomes half pendulous and hangs 

 partly over toward one side. Instances are cited in which, as we have stated, it had attained the 

 enormous weight of fifty pounds. A distinct breed is spoken of as common in Surat, which is 

 furnished with a second hump. Among the other breeds there are some which are entirely 



Vol. I.— G4 



