356 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



the size of an apple, and lower down the throat, the skin 

 becomes lax and pendulous, forming a very large dewlap, 

 ending in a point towards the front, and fringed anteriorly 

 with dark bristly hairs. On the middle of the forehead 

 there is a reversed crest of bristles, passing upwards be- 

 tween the horns and along the ridge of the neck to the ex- 

 tremity of the elevated withers ; the carcass is round, and 

 rather long, the croup a little depressed ; the tail, about two 

 feet long, is terminated by a tuft of coarse black hair. The 

 hair is soft and rather woolly on the face, harder on the 

 rest of the body, but more thinly scattered; rufous passing 

 into dun and buff* in colour, which being spread upon a 

 black hide produces a dirty-gray; the legs are more rufous 

 and buff, and the hoofs greatly resemble those of a Guern- 

 sey cow. 



The females are little inferior to the males in height, but 

 shorter of body ; their neck is less voluminous, the dewlap 

 smaller, and the horns more slender and longer ; they appear 

 to be and really are lighter animals than the males : the horns 

 diverge more ; the two spiral turns of the ridge, have a swel- 

 ling of the axis between them, which appears like a third 

 knot, above which they bend backwards, become slender and 

 pointed, their length extending from twenty to thirty in- 

 ches ; the face is more rufous, and the back more ashy. 



These animals are gregarious and said to live in herds, 

 where the sexes are kept separate, the males flocking to- 

 gether and the females feeding apart ; but this opinion 

 seems to have arisen from the practice of the old bulls ex- 

 pelling all the others from the herd, who are thus com- 

 pelled to live together. The females, being more active than 

 their ponderous chief, surround him, so that he is not im- 

 mediately distinguished, except by experienced sportsmen, 

 who, knowing that his carcass is the fattest, the hide the 

 most valuable, and speed the least swift, select him out 

 and run him down. Formerly, when the species was more 



