132 WILD TRAITS IN TAME ANIMALS. 



width of horn would not have been suitable for 

 life in the dense timber. The wild white cattle 

 still kept in Chillingham Park in Northumberland 

 are supposed to be its direct descendants. The 

 other, the Bos longifrons, was much smaller and 

 had short horns. Its habitat was probably among 

 the grassy glades of the forest, where it browsed 

 with the roebuck and the fallow deer. Some 

 naturalists consider that another wild species, 

 the Bos frojitosiis, was also an ancestor of the 

 modern breeds, especially of the Norse cattle. 



In early times the strength of the ox was much 

 more generally made use of than at the present 

 day. In some parts of England, as in the 

 Southdown district, teams of black oxen, yoked 

 two and two, are still used on the farms, espec- 

 ially for ploughing and rolling. In America 

 the draught - ox is being superseded by the 

 quicker-stepping horse in all parts ; but the first 

 ploughs which broke the virgin soil of the United 

 States were drawn by the cattle which the early 

 settlers took over with them. 



For hauling lumber the ox has no equal. His 

 patient temper, and strength at a dead pull, render 

 him far better fitted for this class of work than 

 the more hasty and irritable horse. In France 



