THE OX 



Cloven Hoof of Cow 



The hair of the cow is not spun into yarn, and then woven into 

 cloth, like that of the sheep. But we do not waste it, for it is care- 

 fully stripped from the skin and mixed with plaster, in order to 

 make it " bind ". 



The skin we turn into leather, and use for making boots and 

 shoes, and all sorts of useful articles. Out of the horns we make 

 cups, spoons, and combs, while we boil 

 down the hoofs, and turn them into glue. 

 Even the bones are cut up, and made into 

 handles for knives. 



If you look at the hoof of a cow or ox, 

 you at once notice that it is not like that of 

 a horse, but is split in two, or " cloven " as 

 we generally say. 



The teeth, too, are quite different from those of a horse. There 

 is no gap between the front and back teeth, like that in which a 

 horse's bit is placed, and there are no teeth at all in the front of 

 the upper jaw. When an ox eats grass, therefore, it does not 

 really bite it, as a horse does, but only 

 presses it against the teeth of the lower 

 jaw, and then tears it away. 



Strange to say, the ox does not 

 chew its food before swallowing it, but 

 waits until it can lie down and rest. 

 Then it passes it back into its mouth, 

 a little at a time, grinds it between its 

 teeth, and swallows it once more. This 

 is called "chewing the cud", or ruminat- 

 ing, and many other animals treat their food in the same odd way. 



The ox has many near relations both in the Old and New Worlds. 

 The Yak of Central Asia, the Bisons of Europe and America, and 

 the Buffaloes of Africa, are all more or less closely allied to the 

 domestic oxen which we see in this country. Formerly the bison 

 roamed in enormous herds over the whole territory of the United 

 States as far as the Rocky Mountains. But at the present day it 

 has nearly disappeared, owing to the ceaseless attacks of Indians 

 and white hunters. In the old days when they had the prairies 



Skull of Cow 



