ORDER RUMINANTIA. 403 



firmly. When a dog thus snaps into the hair, they toss him 

 over the head in an instant ; and if at length, they are, 

 what is termed, pinned by the nose, they spread the fore- 

 legs, bring the hind feet forward, till .they tread the dog 

 under them, and then tear the head loose regardless of the 

 wound they thus inflict upon themselves, provided their 

 enemy be crushed by their feet. They defend themselves 

 against troops of wolves by forming a circle with the 

 strongest outside ; a practice which is common to most 

 gregarious ruminants of the northern hemisphere. 



About, the middle of June the rutting season commences 

 with the most determined battles among the males : they 

 are then not to be approached with safety. Young animals 

 acquire a certain temporary docility, and might be used to 

 the plough; but the elevation of the shoulders, and their 

 weakness about the loins, will never allow such profitable 

 use to be made of them as of the Domestic Ox. The females 

 besides do not retain their milk long, yield a smaller quan- 

 tity, and it is said to smell musky : they are also very restless, 

 leaping the fences and enticing the other cattle to stray 

 by following them, and damage the corn-fields. We have 

 seen many of these animals, but none that were estimated 

 to weigh more than eight hundred pounds, and suspect the 

 reality of such ponderous individuals as before mentioned, 

 unless they belong to a larger species, said to be found in 

 the interior, and differing somewhat in their form, and 

 much more in their size ; though it must be confessed that 

 old bulls, sometimes concealed singly in good pasture, will 

 fatten so enormously as to run with difficulty .and fall an 

 easy prey. 



Formerly the species was known to the eastward of the 

 Apalachian Mountains, but they are no longer found in 

 the remote parts of Pennsylvania or in Kentucky, and only 

 seen beyond the Mississipi ; on the Ohio and Missouri 

 they are in great numbers. The Indians shoot them or 



