THE VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE 159 



which bull or pug dogs do to other dogs. Their forehead 

 is very short and broad, with the nasal end turned up, and 

 the upper lip much drawn back; their lower jaws project 

 beyond the upper, and have a corresponding upward curve; 

 hence their teeth are always exposed. Their nostrils are 

 seated high up and are very open; their eyes .project out- 

 wards. When walking they carry their heads low, on a short 

 neck; and their hinder legs are rather longer compared 

 with the front legs than is usual. Their bare teeth, their 

 short heads, and upturned nostrils give them the most ludi- 

 crous self-confident air of defiance imaginable. 



Since my return, I have procured a skeleton head, 

 through the kindness of my friend Captain Sulivan, R. N., 

 which is now deposited in the College of Surgeons. 1 Don 

 F. Muniz, of Luxan, has kindly collected for me all the in- 

 formation which he could respecting this breed. From his 

 account it seems that about eighty or ninety years ago, they 

 were rare and kept as curiosities at Buenos Ayres. The 

 breed is universally believed to have originated amongst 

 the Indians southward of the Plata; and that it was with 

 them the commonest kind. Even to this day, those reared 

 in the provinces near the Plata show their less civilized 

 origin, in being fiercer than common cattle, and in the cow 

 easily deserting her first calf, if visited too often or mo- 

 lested. It is a singular fact that an almost similar structure 

 to the abnormal 2 one of the niata breed, characterizes, as I 

 am informed by Dr. Falconer, that great extinct ruminant 

 of India, the Sivatherium. The breed is very true; and a 

 niata bull and cow invariably produce niata calves. A niata 

 bull with a common cow, or the reverse cross, produces off- 

 spring having an intermediate character, but with the niata 

 characters strongly displayed: according to Senor Muniz, 

 there is the clearest evidence, contrary to the common belief 

 of agriculturists in analogous cases, that the niata cow when 

 crossed with a common bull transmits her peculiarities more 

 strongly than the niata bull when crossed with a common 



1 Mr. Waterhouse has drawn up a detailed description of this head, which 

 I hope he will publish in some Journal. 



8 A nearly similar abnormal, but I do not know whether hereditary, 

 structure has been observed in the carp, and likewise in the crocodile of 

 the Ganges: Histoire des Anomalies, par M. Isid. Geoffroy St. Hilaire, 

 torn. i. p. 244. 



