CLASS I. MAMMALIA: ORDER 9. RUMINANTIA. 
505 
The wild cattle which exist in immense herds on the plains of South America, and in Mexico 
and Texas, are the oifspring of animals carried thither by the Spaniards some two or three cen- 
tm-ies ago. For this space of time they have lived in a state of complete independence of man, 
and as they preserve a close resemblance to the common cattle of Europe and America, it is 
justly and strongly argued that these must be of an original and distinct, because self-perpetuating, 
sDecies. 
INDIAN cow OK ZEBU Of THE SMALLER KIND. 
The Indian Ox or Zebu, Bos Indicus, is only known in a domestic state. In many respects 
its conformation is peculiar ; it has a long head, short, blunt horns, drooping ears, and a hump 
on its shoulders sometimes weighing fifty pounds. Its temper is gentle, and in its qualities it 
resembles the common ox. It is supposed by many naturalists, and among others, by Bennett, 
to be a mere variety of our common cattle, his chief reason being that it readily breeds with them 
and its peculiarities rapidly disappear by the mixture. It has been lately shown, however, that 
the iramber of vertebras and period of gestation both differ from those of our cattle ; and hence 
the opinion now prevails that the zebu is of a distinct species. Numerous breeds of them, vary- 
ing in size from that of a large mastiff-dog to that of a full-grown buffalo, are spread, more or less 
extensively, over the whole of Southern Asia, the islands of the Indian Archipelago, and the 
eastern coast of Africa from Abyssinia to the Cape of Good Hope. In all these countries the 
zebu supplies, to a greater or less extent, the place of the ox, both as a beast of draught and burden 
and as an article of food and domestic economy. In some parts of India it executes the duties 
of the horse, being either saddled and ridden, or harnessed in a carriage, and performing in this 
manner journeys of considerable length with tolerable celerity. Some of the older writers speak 
of fifty or sixty miles a day as its usual rate of traveling; but the more moderate computation of 
recent authors does not exceed from twenty to thirty. Its beef is considered by no means despi- 
cable, although far from equaling that of the European ox. The hump, which is chiefly com- 
posed of fat, is reckoned the most delicate part. As might naturally be expected from its per- 
fect domestication and wide diffusion, the zebu is subject to as great a variety of colors as those 
of the European race. Its most common hue is a light ashy gray, passing into a cream-color 
or milk-white ; but it is not unfrequently marked with various shades of red or brown, and 
occasionally it becomes perfectly black. Its hump is sometimes elevated in a remarkable degree, 
and usually retains its upright position ; but sometimes it becomes half pendulous and hangs 
partly over toward one side. Instances are cited in which, as we have stated, it had attained the 
enormous weight of fifty f)ounds. A distinct breed is spoken of as common in Surat, which is 
furnished with a second hump. Among the other breeds there are some which are entirely 
Vol. I.— 64 
