IS2 WILD TRAITS IN TAME ANIMALS. 



down to ruminate. When roused or thoroughly- 

 frightened, however, there is no animal more 

 unreasonable and more difficult to calm than 

 an ox. 



Those who have much to do with working 

 oxen, and who watch the behaviour of a num- 

 ber of such animals in the stall or the pas- 

 ture, find that there is quite a complex system 

 of etiquette among them, which is undoubtedly 

 traceable to the social laws which used to pre- 

 vail in the free herds. For instance, there is 

 an order of precedence in some Avays as exact 

 and as rigidly adhered to as that at a German 

 court. It is customary when feeding working 

 bullocks in winter to fasten them by chains 

 which encircle their necks and are attached to 

 stanchions in the wall of the hovel. These are 

 so arranged that each beast can reach his own 

 lump of food (consisting generally of cut chaff 

 with a little meal and root-pulp) or the portion 

 of his neighbour on his right. The length of 

 the chain will not allow him to reach the food 

 of his neighbour on his left. Now, in order to 

 ensure that each beast should get the food 

 which is meant for his consumption and no 

 more, the oxen have to be so arranged that 



