390 MAMMALIA—OX. 
There can be little doubt that the zebu, or Indian ox, is merely a variety 
of the cummon ox, although it is difficult to ascertain the causes by which 
the distinctive characters of the two races have been in the process of time 
gradually produced. But whatever the causes may have been, their effects 
rapidly disappear by the intermixture of the breeds, and are entirely lost at 
the end of a few generations. This intermixture and its results would 
SS ee = ~. y 
alone furnish a sufficient proof of identity of origin ; which consequently 
scarcely requires the confirmation to be derived from the perfect agreement 
of their internal structure, and of all the more essential particulars of their 
external conformation. These, however, are not wanting; not- only is 
their anatomical structure the same, but the form of their heads, which 
affords the only certain means of distinguishing the actual species of this 
genus from each other, presents no difference whatever. In both the fore- 
head is flat, or more properly slightly depressed ; nearly square im its 
outlines, its height being equal to its breadth; and bounded above by a 
prominent line, forming an angular protuberance, passing directly across 
the skull between the basis of the horns. The only circumstances, in fact, 
in which the two animals differ, consist in a fatty hump on the.snoulders of 
the zebu, and in the somewhat more slender and delicate make of its legs. 
Numerous breeds of this humped variety, varying 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 
ef Good Hope. In all these countries, the zebu supplies the place of the 
