188 
27TH REPORT, BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 
the zebu. The older writers in England used " cattle " or " cattell " 
as a collective name for all kinds of live animals held as property 
or reared to serve for food or beasts of burden, and the term sometimes 
included horses, sheep, swine, and by some writers even bees and 
poultr3^ Bovine animals were then designated as "horned cattle,*- 
and still more recently as " black cattle " and " neat cattle." " Black 
cattle " Avas probably first applied to the black breeds of Scotland and 
Wales. Later it had a more general application. " Neat cattle " 
were so designated because they were useful, " neat " being derived 
from the Anglo-Saxon word " neotan " (to make use of). The word 
" cattle " is another form of the word chattel " and " capital," mean- 
ing originally goods or property, cattle among many primitive peoples 
being the most valuable goods, and frequently the measure of value of 
other kinds of property. The old English equivalent for cattle is 
"kine" or " l^yan," derived from cy, the plural of cu, Anglo-Saxon 
for cow. The term " ox " is often used for cattle in general, but in 
a restricted sense it signifies mature castrated male cattle used for 
draft purposes, though in Continental Europe the term has sometimes 
been applied to a male not castrated. 
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE BOVID^. 
Domesticated cattle have been derived from wild species of the 
genus Bos^ which is one of the largest genera of the family Bovi^ae. 
The members of this family, like all ruminating mammals, possess 
hoofs with an even number of toes. Among the noticeable features 
which separate them from other ruminants are the persistent horns 
with a bony horncore. 
The earliest traces of hoofed animals are fragments of bones dis- 
covered in New Mexico, which were found embedded in deposits 
formed in the geological period known as the Eocene. It is difficult 
to distinguish the forerunners of these herbivorous animals with 
hoofs from the carnivorous species that had claws. Both walked on 
the soles of their feet, provided with digits that might answer either 
for claws or for hoofs. Before the close of the Eocene period 
typical hoofs had developed in animals living in both North America 
and Europe. As hoofs developed some of the digits were lost. In 
later Tertiary formations many changes of the skeleton took place, 
which led to the inference that small marsh and forest dwelling ani- 
mals feeding on succulent vegetation had gradually changed into 
hard-hoofed quadrupeds fitted for life on grass}^ plains and pro- 
vided with powerful grinding teeth capable of masticating coarse 
and dry herbage. A thickening of the brain case, often bearing 
horns, the disappearance of the incisor and canine teeth from the 
upper jaw, an increasing height of the molar crowns, and a reduction 
of digits from five to two, were some of the important skeletal modi- 
