ORDER RUMINANTIA 377 



gressive docility of a succession of domesticated generations, 

 produced all the immense consequences upon the civilization, 

 happiness, and increase of mankind which afterwards fol- 

 lowed. But the conquest over brute strength, such as the 

 wild species of the genus possess, cannot have been the re- 

 sult of force alone, any more than in the Camel ; it is per- 

 haps the natural consequence of that instinct in the calves, 

 of nearly all the species, which impels them to follow the 

 hunter, who has slain its mother, and carries off the car- 

 cass ; a calf thus obtained, is readily tamed, and there 

 are numerous examples which establish the fact at this day 

 in the American Bison, and even in the Elk. 



The genus is distinguished by a strong skull, more or 

 less dense about the frontals, which are variously formed, 

 convex, nearly flat, and even concave ; but the horns con- 

 stantly occupy the summit, and their roots project at first 

 laterally. The osseous nucleus is throughout porous; in the 

 Buffaloes indeed cellular, or according to Mr. Bailly, hollow, 

 and communicating with the olfactory apparatus of the 

 nose. The bony core is covered with a horny sheath, desti- 

 tute of annuli and striae; the muzzle is invariably broad 

 and black; there is no suborbital sinus; the ears are 

 mostly middle-sized ; the body long, the legs solid. The 

 males have a bellowing voice, some of the females low, 

 others utter a kind of groan. They fight by butting with 

 the head, and kicking with the feet. In threatening the 

 eyes become fiery ; they give a low deep roar, stamp, and 

 paw with the feet, and erect the tail. The greater number 

 will submit to domestication ; but the quantum of docility 

 varies nearly in the ratio of their strength, and of their 

 sense of feeling ; all are offended at the sight of glaring 

 colours, particularly red : they hear and see well, hut the 

 sense of smelling is in them the most perfect. The grega- 

 rious are capable of a certain degree of education, and even 

 attachment, but the solitary, and such as remain in families, 



Vol. IV, 80 



