22 S 
BOS 
BORT, a town of France, in the department of the Cor- 
reze, and chief place of a canton, in the cliftrift of UiTel; 
four leagues foutn-eaft of Uffel. 
BORTZU'TIM, a town of Tranfilvauia : twelve miles 
north of Clauienburg. 
B OR U'A, a town of Portugal, in the province of Alentejo : 
two leagues from Villa Viciola. 
BORVIA'SIA, a town of Ruffian Tartary, on the horth 
fide of the Don : iixty-four miles eaft-north-eaft of Azoph. 
BORYSOW', a town of Lithuania, in the palatinate of 
•Minfk : thirty-fix miles ealt-nonh-ealt of Minfk. 
BOR'ZA, a town of Perfia, in the province of Adirbeit- 
zan : eighty miles fouth of Tauris. 
BORZIN'SKOl, a town of Siberia, on the Argun : 144 
miles fouth-eaft of Nertchinlk. 
BORZ'NA, a town of Rulfia, in the government of 
Tchernigov : fifty miles fouth-eaft of Tehernigov, and 548 
fouth of Peterlburg. 
BOS, f [pov,-, from / 2 oi>, to bellow. Minlhew derives 
it from dun abos, fat or pampered.] In zoology, a genus 
of quadrupeds belonging to the order of pecora, including 
every, fpecies of animal of the bull and cow kind. The 
generic characters of this genus are, Horns hollow within, 
and bending out laterally ; eight cutting teeth in the lower 
jaw, and none in the upper; the Ikin along the lower fide 
of the neck, pendulous. The fpecific marks of the com¬ 
mon bull and cow are, rounded horns, with a large fpace 
between their bafes. The different fpecies and varieties 
are as follow: 
1. The taurus, or common bull and cow, diftinguifhed 
alfo by the appellation of black cattle. The northern coun¬ 
tries are oblerved to produce the belt breed of this kind 
in Europe. The largeft are to be met with in Denmark, 
Podolia, the Ukraine, in India, Madagalcar, and among 
the Calmuck Tartars. Thofe of Ireland, England, Hol¬ 
land, and Hungary, are much larger than thole of Perfia, 
Turkey, Greece, Italy, and Spain; but thole of Barbary 
are leaft of all. In mountainous countries, as Wales, the 
highlands of Scotland, &c. the black cattle are fmall, but 
hardy, and when fatted make excellent beef. In Lapland 
they are moldy white, and many of them want horns. 
The Britifn breed of cattle has in general been much al¬ 
tered and improved by foreign mixtures. The Lincoln- 
fhire kind derive their fize from the Holftcin breed ; and 
the large hornlels cattle that are bred in fomc parts of 
England come originally from Poland.- The original flock 
of ihele different breeds are ftill found wild, in fmall num¬ 
bers, in the marfhy forefts of Poland, the Carpathian 
mountains, and Lithuania, and in Afia about mount Cau- 
cafus. They are, in their wild ftate, the bonafus of Ari- 
itotle and Pliny, the itrus of Ctfefar, the bifon of Rzaczin- 
Iki, and the auroch of the Germans. About two hundred 
and fixty years ago, there was found in Scotland a wild 
race of thefe cattle, called bifontes jubati, which were of a 
pure white colour, and had, if we may credit Boethius, 
manes like lions. Thefe are now extinft in a wild ftate; 
but their offspring, ftill fufficiently favage, are, or were 
very lately, preferred in the parks of Drumlanrig in Scot¬ 
land, and Chillingham in Northumberland. They retain 
their white colour, but have loft their manes. The prin¬ 
cipal external appearances which diftinguifh this breed of 
cattle from all others, are the following: their colour is 
invariably white; muzzles black; the whole of the infide 
of the ear, and about one-third of the outfide, from the tip 
downwards, red : the colour of the ears, in the undege¬ 
nerated beafts, is black; horns white, with black tips, 
very fine, and bent upwards : fome of the bulls have a 
thin upright mane, about an inch and a half or two inches 
long. At the firll appearance of any perlon, they fet off 
in full gallop ; and, at the diftance of two or three hun¬ 
dred yards, make a wheel round, and come boldly up 
again, toffing their heads in a menacing manner : on a hid¬ 
den they make a full flop at the diftance of forty or fifty 
yards, looking wildly at the objeft of their lurprize ; but, 
upon the leaft motion being made, they all again turn 
Vol. Ill, No. 126. 
BOS 
round and fly off with equal fpeed, but riot to the fame 
diliance; forming a fhorter circle, -and again returning 
with a bolder and more threatening alpeft than before a 
they approach much nearer, probably within thirty yards; 
when they make another Hand, and again fly off: this they 
do leveral times, fhortening their diftance, ail'd advancing 
nearer, till they come within ten yards, when mod people 
think it prudent to leave them, not duffing to provoke 
them farther; for there is little doubt but in two or three 
turns they would make an attack. The mode of killing 
them was perhaps the onlv modern remains of the gran¬ 
deur of ancient hunting. On notice being given, that a 
wild bull would be killed on a certain day, the inhabitants 
of the neighbourhood came mounted, and armed with 
guns, &c. fometimes to the amount of an hundred horfe, 
and four or five hundred foot, who flood upon walls, or 
got into trees, while the horfemen rode off the bull from 
the reft of the herd, until he flood at bay; when the 
markfmen difmounted and fliot. At fome of thefe hunt¬ 
ings twenty or thirty fhots have been fired before he was 
fubdued. ■ On fuch occafions the bleeding vidtim grew 
defperately furious, from the fmarting of his wounds, and 
the fhouts of favage joy that where echoing from every 
fide: but, from the number of accidents that happened, 
this dangerous mode has been little praftifed of late years, 
the park-keeper alone generally fliooting them with a rifled 
gun, at one fliot. When the cows calve, they hide their 
calves for a week or ten days in fome fequeftered fituation, 
and go and fuckle them two or three times a-day. If any 
perfon come near the calves, they clap their heads dole 
to the ground, and lie like a hare in their form, to hide 
themfelves. This is a proof of their native wildnefs. When 
any one of thefe cattle happens to be wounded, or is grown 
weak and feeble through age or ficknefs, the reft of the 
herd fet upon it, and gore it, to death. The weight of the 
oxen of this fpecies is generally from forty to fifty ftone 
the four quarters; the cows about thirty. The beef is 
finely marbled, and of excellent flavour. Thofe at Bur¬ 
ton-Conftable, in the county of York, were all deftroyed 
by a diftemper a few years ago. They varied ffightly from 
thole at Chillingham, having black ears and muzzles, and 
the tips of their tails of the fame colour; they were alia 
much larger, many of them weighing fixty ftone, probably 
owing to the richnefs of the pafturage in Holdernefs, but 
generally attributed to the difference of kind between thole 
with black and with red ears, the former of which they 
itudioufly endeavoured to preferve. 
Frequent mention is made of our wild cattle by hiflo- 
rians. One relates, that Robert Bruce was (in chafing 
thefe animals) prelerved from the rage of a wild bull by 
the intrepidity of one of his courtiers, from which he and 
his lineage acquired the name of Turnbull. Fitz-Stephen 
names thefe animals uri-jylmejlres, among thofe that har¬ 
boured in the great foreti that in his time lay adjacent to 
London. Another enumerates, among the provifions at 
the great feaft of Nevil archbiihop of York, fix wild bulls. 
The lofs of the favage nature of thefe animals by domefti- 
cation, might occafion l’ome change in the external ap¬ 
pearance, as is frequent with wild animals deprived of 
liberty ; and to that we may aferibe their lofs of mane. 
The urns of the Hercynian foreft, deferibed by Ctel’ar, was 
of this kind ; the lame which is called by the modern 
Germans, aurochs, i. e. bos fyTjeJlris. It is a great doubt, 
fays Mr. Pennant, whether any wild cattle of our fpecies 
are found on the continent of Africa, We mull beware 
of the mifnomers of common travellers, elpecially the an¬ 
cient. Thus we (hall find the wild ox of Leo to be the an¬ 
telope ; and the buffaloes of Pigafetta, .feeu in Congo and 
Angola, to lie the fpecies of dwarfs. With more confi¬ 
dence we may fay from the authority of Flacourt, that 
wild cattle are found in Madagalcar, like the European, 
but higher on their legs. Borneo, according, to Beckman, 
and the mountains of Java, yield thefe cattle in a ftate of 
nature; but the torrid zone forbids the lerutiny into,ipe- , 
cics, which would give l'atisfaftion to an inquifite natu- 
3 L ralift. 
