11 
THE OX. 
HISTORY. 
hock, and at its extremity, is furnished with a brush of long bristly hairs. The female has smaller horns than the male, and less 
elevated withers. Though a large animal, she has an udder smaller than that of the least of the domestic Cows. 
These creatures are ferocious, strong, and fearless of enemies. They hold their heads low, are swift of foot, but are soon 
worn out, seldom running farther than one or two English miles. They swim with facility, and delight to cool themselves in 
water. Their favourite places of resort are thickets near the swampy banks of rivers. In the warmer season they frequent 
shadowy spots; in winter they keep quiet during the day, in the thickets of firs and pines, browsing only at night, and finding 
sustenance on the bark of young trees. The thrusts of an old bull will overturn trees of five or six inches diameter. An old 
bull, we are informed, is a match for four wolves, though packs of the latter animal will hunt down a full-grown bull when 
alone.* 
Like all the Bovine race in the state of nature, they avoid the dangerous approach of man. When suddenly come upon, 
they rush upon the intruder with fury. When taken young they become used to their keepers, but resent the intrusion of 
strangers, and seem incapable of resigning their natural wildness and submitting to domestication. They abhor the domestic 
races, shunning them, or goring them to death. Four young ones, captured in the forest of Bialowieza, afforded to M. Gilbert, 
who had long resided in Poland, opportunities of observing their habits. They refused to take the milk of the cow, but at length 
submitted to be suckled by a she-goat, raised on a table to the level of their muzzles. When satisfied, they sometimes tossed the 
nurse and the table to the distance of several feet. The two males died within a month. The females survived; they became 
docile and obedient to their keeper, licking his hands, rubbing his body gently with their heads and muzzles, and coming to him 
when they heard his voice. They hated the sight of scarlet, and drove all the common cows from their pastures. They came 
into season at the age of two years, and rejected the approaches of the domestic bull. 
The forest in which these creatures are preserved, is the largest and most ancient in Europe. It contains about 352 geo¬ 
graphical square miles, of which about one-sixth part consists of rushy swamps, and is intersected by numerous rivulets, and 
by one considerable river. The number of Bisons consists, at present, of about 700: they are protected by the Government, 
and are only suffered to be killed in small numbers, by the especial permission of the Emperor. When the wolves are to be 
hunted, it is done with caution, and by a small number of dogs; and any noisy occupations which might disturb the animals, are 
prohibited within the forest.-j- 
From the habits of this creature, his indocility, and the instinctive aversion to domestic races, it will appear that he is not one 
of those animals which Providence has ordained to yield up their services to man, and become an instrument of good to his race. 
He is rather to be numbered amongst those which are destined to disappear before the progress of civilization and the arts. 
By a rare chance, human interference has saved the wreck of the species in Europe from that destruction which awaited it; but 
this can only be for a season, and the time will doubtless come, when the great Bison of the European woods will be numbered 
with those extinct species, whose bones alone remain to testify their former existence. 
The next to be mentioned of the Bisontine group is proper to another hemisphere, and was only made known to us when the 
rich savannahs and boundless forests of the Western Continent revealed their living inhabitants to the wondering eyes of European 
travellers. The American Bison, Bison Americanus, commonly, but erroneously, termed a Buffalo, resembles the Bison of Europe 
in his general form, and in some of his habits. He has fifteen pairs of ribs, whereas the European Bison has but fourteen. His 
head is large; his forehead is broad and convex; his horns are short, thick, and black; his eyes are small, clear, and piercing, with 
a placid expression, except when he is irritated, and then the expression turns to that of ferocity and rage. He is very bulky in 
front, and has large withers, to which powerful muscles are attached to support his ponderous head. The back droops from the 
withers, and the posterior part of the body is meagre and thin. On the summit of his head there is an abundance of long woolly 
hair, which hangs over the face, the ears, and the horns. The throat, the neck, the shoulders, and the breast, are covered with 
long hair ; the back, and the rest of the trunk, are covered with short hairy wool. The colour of his fur is, in summer, a light 
brown, in winter a brownish-black. The tail is about eighteen inches long, terminated by a tuft of hair. The female is smaller 
than the male, and has shorter horns, and less of hair on the anterior parts. The male, when fully grown, has been sometimes 
found to weigh 2000 lb., though the average weight is said to be 12 or 14 cwt. 
This is a very strong and agile creature, making its way with great swiftness through tangled brushwood and heaps of snow. 
He is more irritable than dangerous, and flies from the sight of the hunter. When attacked by large dogs, he defends himself 
with courage. If his enemies catch him by his shaggy coat, he tosses them overhead in an instant. Should they succeed in pin¬ 
ning him by the nose, after the manner of attack by the bull-dog, he spreads his fore-legs, and brings his hind-feet forward till he 
* Weissenborn, Magazine of Natural History, June 1838. 
4 
t Weissenborn. 
