Species of Bovine Animals, 



6421 



tion of the taurines. The statement is nevertheless worthy of citation. 

 The curious little straight-horned buffalo, known as Anoa depressi- 

 cornis, is however perhaps meant. 



For the same reason we quote the following from Earl's ' Voyage to 

 the Molucca Islands and New Guinea,' p. 361 : — "Wild cattle are 

 numerous in Timor Laut, of a brown colour, with upright horns, and 

 size about the same as that of two-year old cattle in Holland. The 

 natives catch them with rattan, and also shoot them with arrows." 



Again, Mr. Hugh Cuming assured us, that the tamarao of the island 

 of Mindoro (one of the Philippines) is a small bovine species, but fierce 

 and dangerous to attack, of a dark colour, with horns rising at an angle 

 of 45° from the forehead ; therefore not akin to the Anoa depressi- 

 cornis, which seems to be a diminutive buffalo. 



The Tartar cattle of the steppes lying northward of the great Asiatic 

 watershed are, we believe, all of the European type ; while in China 

 this would appear to be more or less mingled in blood with the humped 

 races, — as the domestic geese of India are obviously of a hybrid race 

 between Anser cygnoides and A. cinereus 1 Our information is, how- 

 ever, exceedingly scant and unsatisfactory concerning the breeds of 

 cattle in the Chinese region, comprehending Mongolia, Mantchuria, 

 the Corean peninsula, Japan, Luchu,* &c. ; nor are the essential cha- 

 racters seized with reference to classification of those above described 

 in Siam and Sumatra. The main object of the present sketch is to 

 direct the attention of observers to those leading differential cha- 

 racters. 



It would seem that the humpless Tartar cattle referred to interbreed 

 with the yak in the northern limits of the range of the latter, as the 



* The cattle of the Luchu islands are described by Captain Basil Hall as " a small 

 black breed, used principally for agricultural purposes." The presence or absence of 

 a hump is not mentioned, which should be negative evidence of the latter. In some 

 districts of China the humped would seem to predominate, and these are often repre- 

 sented in Chinese paintings. In Chusan the race appears to be mingled, with 

 no great admixture of blood of the humped species. Cattle are generally rare in 

 China, the strange inhabitants of that region having an aversion to milk, omnivorous 

 as they are in most other respects : the Mantchurian Tartars, however, are particularly 

 fond of milk. About Canton, if we mistake not, only buffalos are met with, which are 

 employed to till the ground. It is probable that where taurine cattle are kept, the 

 humped races predominate in the south, the humpless northward, with intermixture of 

 blood where the two meet. The cattle of Butan would seem, from all we can learn, 

 to be of the European or Tartar race, now, it would appear, becoming rare in the pro- 

 vince, and the exportation of them strictly prohibited: if so, they have, doubtless, 

 been brought round by an eastern route. 



