THE ANCESTRY OF DOMESTICATED CATTLE. 
205 
etc. Nehring (1896, p. 923) cites proof of dwaifing in case of the 
yak and the banting when kept in the zoological garden. The ef- 
fect of an unfavorable environment is shown by the condition of the 
Permian cattle at the present time. 
When cattle of two different breeds are placed in a similar environ- 
ment, similar changes take place, but nevertheless there is always 
some distinction left. The conformations are never quite alike. 
The Jerseys, Norman, Angler, and East Friesian cattle live in a 
similar environment, yet they are different; it may be because they 
are of different origin. The Jersey cow has good care and abun- 
dance of nourishing food, yet she remains small. 
Food, domestication, and a change of climate effect great changes, 
however, and Nehring can see no greater changes between primi- 
genius and longifrons than between the wild and the domesticated 
yak. The dwarfing of cattle from a lack of suitable food is well 
illustrated in northern Russia (Middendorf) and in the Shetland 
Islands. When Brown Swiss cattle are taken to the steppes of Hun- 
gary their horns grow larger, like those of the natives of that region. 
In the dry year of 1893 young Oldenburg bulls imported to Saxony 
grew horns similar to those of dry climates and poor food. Pusch 
mentioned a case which came under his observation the same year. 
A bull weighed 500 pounds, and showed no signs of growing larger. 
He came from a cow imported from Pomerania and was of medium 
size, with some Shorthorn blood. An analysis of the hay showed 
0.27 per cent of phosphorus and 0.86 per cent of lime, when normally 
there should have been 0.43 per cent of phosphorus and 0.95 per cent 
of lime. 
Nehring also calls attention to the fact that the first animals to 
be domesticated would be young. This in itself would tend to bring 
about greater changes than if mature animals only were tamed and 
provided with food. Even if primigeniiis was a large and unruly 
creature the 3^oung might be as easily tamed as if the mature animal 
was smaller. It is not size, but the disposition to accept the life 
offered to it, that determines w^hether or not an animal is capable of 
being tamed. Yet Nehring (1888) admits that relatives of prlmi- 
genms may have been independently domesticated in Asia and Africa, 
although he does not go so far as Riitimeyer in thinking longifrons 
one of these independent species, for the following reasons: 
{a) Color : Longifrons is solid in color, black -brown to gray, with 
a light back stripe, and primigeniiis was solid black with a light back 
stripe much like the Brown Swiss cattle. 
(5) Size: Longifrons is smaller, but it is because of unfavorable 
environment, as a raw climate, poor food, in-and-in breeding, and 
neglect. Dwarfs and small forms of domestic cattle do arise in this 
way. 
