Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 5.djvu/258

246 CATTLE termed " spontaneous variations ; " but it is beyond doubt mainly due to the long-continued and careful selection of the breeder. The British forms, a detailed account of which will be found under the article AGRICULTURE, voL i. p. 387, may be conveniently arranged in three classes : (1.) Polled Cattle, an artificial variety which may be produced in any breed by selection ; thus the polled cattle of Galloway had small horns so late as the middle of the last century, but by only breeding with bulls of the shortest horns, the grandfather of the present earl of Selkirk succeeded in entirely removing those appendages ; (2.) Short-horned Cattle, the descendants of Bos longifrons, represented in greatest purity by the Welsh and Highland cattle, and probably differing little from the cattle found in Britain from the Polished Stone age to the end of the Roman period ; these were afterwards driven with their masters from the open country to the hilly districts, before the Saxon invaders, who probably brought with them (3.) the Long-lioiiied Cattle, larger than the preceding, and of a red and white colour, which have given rise to those breeds of cattle that now occupy the less elevated and more fertile tracts of England. Those Saxon cattle may be regarded as representing the primigenius type. The long and short horned varieties, however, interbreed freely, so that in many of our breeds the two types are inextricably mixed. Of Continental forms the Hungarian is conspicuous from its great size, and the extent of its horns, which often measure 5 feet from tip to tip. The cattle of Friesland, Jutland, and Holstein form another large breed, and these, it is said, were introduced by the Goths into Spain, thus becoming the progenitors of the enormous herds of wild cattle which now roam over the Pampas of South America. The latter, it is alleged by Spanish writers, have all sprung from seven cows and a bull brought from Andalusia to the city of Assuncion in Paraguay, about the year 1556. They are widely spread over the plains of that continent, but are most numerous in the temperate districts of Paraguay and La Plata a fact which bears out the view taken by Darwin, that our oxen are the descendants of species originally inhabiting a temperate climate. Except in greater uniformity of colour, which is dark-reddish brown, the Pampas cattle have deviated but little from the Andalusian type. They roam in great herds in search of pasture, under the leadership of the strongest bulls, and avoid man, who hunts them chiefly for the value of their hidea, of which enormous numbers are exported annually from Buenos Ayres. They are, however, readily reclaimed ; the wildest herds, according to Professor Low, being often domesticated in a month. These cattle have hitherto been chiefly valued for their hides, and as supplying animal food to the inhabitants, who only use the choicest parts ; but lately attempts have been made, and with considerable success, to export the beef in a preserved state to Europe, Although the South American cattle have thus sprung from a single European breed that continent possessing no indigenous species of taurine Bovidce, they have already given rise to many well-marked varieties, as the polled cattle of Paraguay, the hairless breed of Colombia, and that most monstrous of existing breeds, the Natas, two herds of which Darwin saw on the banks of the Plata, and which he describes as " bearing the same relation to other cattle as bull or pug dogs do to other dogs." Cattle have been introduced by the colonists into Australia and New Zealand, where they are now found in immense herds, leading a semi-wild existence on the extensive "runs" of the settlers. The Hottentots and Kaffres possess several valuable breeds, as the Namaqua and Bechwana cattle, the latter with horns which sometimes measure over 13 feet from tip to tip along the curvature. The cattle of those semi-barbarous South Africans appear to be among the most intelligent of their kind, certain of them, known as backleys, having been trained to watch the flocks, preventing them from straying beyond fixed limits, and protecting them from the attacks of wild beasts and from robbers. They are also trained to fight, and are said to rush into battle with the spirit of a war-horse. Oxen, especially in Britain, have come to be regarded as dull and stupid animals, but this is only true of such breeds as are reared solely for fattening and killing. The wild cattle of Chillingham, and the semi-wild herds that abound on the plains of South America, show no lack of sagacity in avoiding threatened danger, or in combining to meet a common foe ; while the lackley of the Kaffres shows how susceptible they are of education. Wherever, indeed, the ox is employed as a beast of burden or of draught, and it is so in most countries, its intelligence is scarcely inferior to that of the horse, while it surpasses the latter in docility and in the patient endurance of toil. In the south-west of England the Devonshire cattle arc largely employed in husbandry, and the greater attention which has consequently been bestowed upon them has been amply rewarded in the superior docility and intelli gence of the breed. Among the Swiss mountains there are herds of cows, whose leaders are adorned with bells, the ringing of which keeps the cattle together, and guides the herdsman to their pasture grounds. The wearing of the bells has come to be regarded as an honourable distinction by the cows, and no punishment is felt so keenly as the loss of them, the culprit giving expression to her sense of degradation by the most piteous lo wings. The period of gestation in the cow is nine months, when she usually produces a single calf ; occasionally, however, two are born, and when these are of different sexes, the female is almost invariably barren, and is known as a " free-martin," that is, a cow free for fattening, from the Scotch word " mart," signifying a fattened ox. It is impossible to over-estimate the services rendered by the ox to the human race. Living, it ploughs its owner s land and reaps his harvest, carries his goods or himself, guards his property, and, as has been seen, even fights his battles, while its udders, which under domestication have been enormously enlarged, yield him at all seasons a copious supply of milk. When dead, its flesh forms a chief source of animal food ; its bones are ground into manure or turned into numerous articles of use or ornament ; its skin is made into leather, its ears and hoofs into glue ; its hair is mixed with mortar ; and its horns are cut and moulded into spoons and other useful articles. Humped cattle are found in greatest perfection in India, but they extend eastward to Japan and westward to the African Niger. They differ from the European forms not only in the fleshy protuberance on the shoulders, but in the number of sacral vertebras, in the character of their voice, which has been described as " grunt-like," and also in their habits; "they seldom," says Mr Blyth, "seek the shade, and never go into the water and there stand knee-deep like the cattle of Europe." They now exist only in the domesticated state, and appear to have been brought under the dominion of man at a very remote period, all the representations of the ox on such ancient sculptures as those in the caves of Elephanta being of the humped or zebu form. There are several breeds of the zebu, the finest occurring in the northern provinces of India, where they are used for riding, carrying, it is said, a man at the rate of six miles an hour for fifteen hours. White bulls are held peculiarly sacred by the Hindus, and when they have been dedicated to Siva, by the branding of his image upon them, they are thenceforth relieved from all labour.

They go without molestation wherever they choose, and