304 On the Flat-hornecl Taurine Cattle of S. JE. Asia. [No. 3 



«re also found here, principally in the higher parts of the mountains ; 

 but they bear little resemblance to the Banteng of Java ; are below 

 the middle size, yet possess, notwithstanding, an incredible strength." 

 Just possibly an undescribed Taurine may be here indicated. 



While illustrating the domesticability of all the flat-horned Tau- 

 rine cattle indigenous to S. E. Asia, it is not disputed that some species 

 of animáis are more easily tameable than others ; for instance, the 

 American as compared with the European Bison (by all accounts), or 

 even the domestic humped bull as compared with the domestic Euro- 

 pean bull. It may be from more thorough association with mankind, 

 from its youth continuously, but it rather seems from constitutional 

 diíference (still the result, perhaps, of countless ages of such complete 

 domestication), but the fact is undeniable that the humped bull is 

 far more gentle and tractable than his European compeer ; being 

 much more completely in subjection, and hardly (if at all) influenced 

 by those paroxysms of sexual excitement which seem to be as irre- 

 pressible as ineradicable in the entire males of most other ruminants. 

 It must be conceded, however, that the European bull is rarely sub- 

 jected to like conditions, — so much inured to constant handling, and 

 governed by a cord passed through his septum narium. But the 

 fact remains (as attested by daily observation) that, under existent 

 respective conditions, the humped bull is — as a general rule — by far 

 the more gentle, tractable, and inoffensive animal of the two. 



Since writing the abo ve, I have seen Professor Isidore Geoífroy St. 

 Hilaire's essay ' Sur les Origines des Animaux Domestiques,' 2nd frag- 

 ment, published in the " Bulletin Mensual de la Société Impértale 

 Zoologique d' * Acclimation" III, 496. Of the Zebú, or humped Ox, he 

 remarks, that in ancient times it was doubtlessly much less diífused 

 over the East than at present. " Herodote qui avait voyage en Orient, 

 Aristote qui connaissait si bien l'Egypte, la Perse et l'Inde, parlent á, 

 plusieurs reprises des" Bceufs de 1' Orient et des particularités de leur 

 organization, jamáis de leur bosse. Pour Herodote, voy. surtout liv. 

 II, III, et V. Je ne trouve pas advantage le Zebú dans 'iElien and dans 

 Athenee. Ou contraire, Pline (liv. VIII, LXX,) mentionne son exis- 

 tence en Syrie et en Carie. * * * Aristote dit d'ailleurs formellement ; 



