-'tit 



CASSELL'S POPULAR NATURAL HISTORY. 



the office has not been yet ascertained ; and a fourth, which both receives and digests the food after 

 rumination. Those herbivorous animals which do not ruminate, as the horse and ass, have only one 

 stomach ; but the upper portion of it is lined with cuticle, and appears to perform some preparatory 

 office, which renders the food more easily digestible by the lower portion of the same cavity. 



A family* of the Ungulate or hoofed division of the -mammalia, is thus characterised by Dr. 

 J. E. Gray : 



"Two middle toes, separate; cutting-teeth, eight below; upper jaw, callous; grinders, six in each 

 iaw. Frontal bones produced, generally bearing horns especially in the males. Gullet with two long 

 pouches just before the stomach, used for holding and soaking the food before it is chewed. Using 

 their head and horns in defence." 



' This family includes the following tribes : Bovina, Cervinn, Giraffina, Moschina, Camellina. 



THE DUK1IAM BULL. 



The tribe Bovina is again divided into the sub-tribes : Bovece, Ovece, A>itilopece, Caprece. 

 The sub-tribe Bovece will first be considered. 



THE BOVINE TRIBE.f 



WE read in the Mosaic record that " Jabal was the father of such as have cattle," and thus the ox 

 appears at a very early period of man's existence on the globe. But, with this fact, we must rest 

 content. As the circumstances attendant on the primeval domestication of the ox are beyond our 

 knowledge, so is our information as limited with regard to the original source from whence it sprung. 

 We know not whether the various races of domestic cattle which are peculiar to different climates are 

 attributable to the same primitive stock, or the contrary ; nor among the various wild oxen now extant 

 are we acquainted with one to which we can refer as the type of any one of the domestic races. 



* Bovidie. 



Bns taurus. Plinv. Taurus castratus. Johnston. Vacca. Gesner. Bos domesticus and Bos taurus. Linnseus. 

 The Slier and Ochs of Ueiuiaii writers; aud Bceuf of the French. 



