536 



THE COMMON OX. 



were even better than circumstances would now afford it.* 

 The specific characters which appear to be maintained by the 

 common domestic ox are a flat forehead, longer than broad, 

 and round horns, placed at the extremities of the ridge which 

 separates the forehead from the occiput. The Icelandic and 

 some other domestic breeds are usually without any horns. 

 In those that possess horns, the form and length of these 

 weapons are variable. A breed originally from Lancaster, much 

 improved by the celebrated Bakewell,f and established throughout 

 the greater part of our midland counties, is distinguished as the 

 long-horned rattle of England. The extraordinary size which 

 the horns of some breeds attain results from castration ; and 

 perhaps this was the case with the oxen which Dr. H. C. Leiiz 

 saw in Hungary, whose horns measured six feet from tip to tip. 

 In some breeds the colour is only of one sort, while others 

 display several colours, as black, white, cream-colour, red, and 

 brown. We read that the Druids used to sacrifice white bulls 

 at their altars, and it is too striking a coincidence to be acci- 

 dental, that white bulls were also sacrificed by the Egyptians 

 to Apis, as Herodotus informs us. The ox sheds its coat 

 every year. 



From the earliest ages, oxen have been employed in drawing 

 carts and ploughs. The Romans bred their cattle principally 

 for draught, and strength was therefore the quality they most 

 prized. A stout body, good limbs, and a fleshy strong neck 

 were requisite for the performance of the labour demanded of 

 them. Virgil, in his Georgics (Book III), describes the points 

 which should be possessed by cattle best fitted to breed from 

 for the plough. In many parts of the continent, as also in 



* Skulls of the Bos primogenius, above referred to, found in different parts 

 of Europe, are contained in the museums of London, Paris, Gottingen, 

 Darmstadt, &c. ; but the museum of Jena contains a perfect skeleton dug 

 up near Haselbein, in the grand duchy of Weimar. 



f Bakewell, the agriculturist, made many economic improvements in our 

 breeds of sheep also, altering their size and form so considerably, that when 

 the geologist of that name was travelling, a farmer asked him whether he was 

 the Mr. Bakcwell who invented sheep. 



