RUMINANTIA. 179 
Those of India and of Guinea, which also have long tails, are dis- 
tinguished by their long legs, very convex foreheads, pendent ears, 
want of horns, and short hair. 
The north of Europe and of Asia has almost every where a breed 
of small sheep with a very short tail. In the race of Persia, Tar- 
tary, and China, the tail is transformed into a double globe of fat; 
in that of Syria and Barbary it is long, but loaded with an immense 
mass of the same substance. In both, the ears are pendent, the 
horns of the males large, those of the females moderate, and the 
wool is mixed with hair. 
Sheep are valuable for their flesh, suet, milk, skin, wool, and 
dung; well managed flocks carry fertility every where. Lambs are 
weaned at two months, are castrated at six months, and shed their 
milk teeth between the first and third year. The ewe can bear at a 
year, and produce from ten to twelve lambs. The period of gestation 
is five months, and two lambs are produced at a birth. The ram is 
mature at eighteen months, and is let out to thirty ewes—he is fat- 
tened at eight years. 
Bos, Lin. 
Oxen have the horns directed laterally, inclining upwards or forwards, 
in the form of crescents; they are large animals, with a broad muzzle, 
short and thick body, and stout legs. 
B. taurus, L.; Buff. TV. xvi. (The Common Ox). Its specific 
characters are a flat forehead, longer than broad, and round horns, 
placed at the extremities of the salient line or ridge which separates 
the forehead from the occiput. In the fossil crania, which appear to 
have belonged to this species in a wild state (the Urus of the an- 
tients), the horns curve forwards and downwards; but in the num- 
berless domestic varieties, they have very different directions and 
sizes—sometimes they are even totally wanting. The common races 
of the torrid zone have, all, a lump of fat upon the shoulders, and 
some of thom are not larger than the Hog. ‘The utility of these 
animals for labour, and the value of their flesh, fat, milk, and hide, 
are known to every one: even their horns are used in the arts. The 
period of gestation is nine months. The cow can bear at eighteen 
months—the bull is mature at two years; he is cut at two and fat- 
tened at eight years. 
B. urus, Gm.; Urus or Bison of the ancients; Zubr of the Po- 
landers; Gesn. CLVII. (The Aurochs). Generally, but errone- 
ously, considered as the wild stock of our horned cattle. It is 
distinguished from them by its convex forehead, which is wider than 
it is high, by the insertion of its horns below the occipital crest, by 
the length of its legs, by an additional pair of ribs, by a sort of curly 
wool, which covers the head and neck of the bull, forming a short 
beard under the throat, and by its grunting voice. It is a savage 
animal that has now taken refuge in the great marshy forests of 
Lithuania, of the Krapacs, and of Caucasus, but which formerly 
